Province makes extra $1.1M available to P.E.I. small businesses

Innovation PEIwill increase funding for eight programs to help Island businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, it announced Thursday, changes estimated to costthe province approximately $1.1 million.

"We wanted to demonstrate government's commitment to our business community," Minister of Economic Growth Matthew MacKay said. "We thought it would be a great time to be innovative and revamp some of these programs to help our small businesses out across Prince Edward Island."

MacKay said government chose the eight programs that businesses use the most and increased the funding for each program. They are: capital acquisition, small business investment grant, information technology planning, information technology implementation, human resources planning, human resources implementation, marketing assistanceand web presence assistance.

For example, small business grants had been capped at a reimbursement rate of 15 per cent or a maximum of $3,750, and will now be increased to 30 per cent or $7,500, MacKay said.

"They need all the help they can get right now to survive during COVID, and government's committed to help them," he said.

"Hopefully, we'll get to a point where COVID will be behind us and our small businesses will still be here."

Government is currently reviewing all of Innovation PEI's programs with an aim to simplify things for businesses, and plans to reveal changes in the spring.

"This is just kind of a jump start of what some of these programs could possibly look like in the future," MacKay said.

The changes come into effect Nov. 1 and end March 31, 2021.

More from CBC P.E.I.