Starting June 30, eligible small and medium-sized businesses, co-ops and non-profits in the Cochrane area can begin to apply for funding to help open their doors. 

The Alberta government's Small and Medium Enterprise Relaunch Grant offers financial assistance to businesses, cooperatives, and non-profit organizations that faced restrictions or closures from public health orders, and experienced a revenue loss of at least 50 per cent due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eligible job creators with 500 or fewer employees can apply for up to $5,000 through this program. Application intake will remain open until Aug. 31, or for four weeks following the start of stage three of Alberta’s Relaunch Strategy – whichever is later.

This relief can be used to offset the costs faced in reopening doors. This includes the costs of implementing measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as physical barriers, PPE and cleaning supplies, as well as rent, employee wages, replacing inventory, and more.

Tanya Fir, Alberta Economic Development, Trade and Tourism minister, calls small and medium-sized businesses the backbone of Alberta's economy.

"That’s why we are taking further action to support them as we relaunch our economy and get folks back to work," says Fir. "This builds on Alberta’s nation-leading support for job creators, and will help businesses, cooperatives, and non-profits get Albertans working and our economy back on track.”

To manage the expected volume of applications during the first week of application intake (June 29 to July 3), a specific application day has been designated for specific regions of the province. It opens for northern Alberta on June 29, followed by southern Alberta, which includes Cochrane, on June 30.

Beginning July 4, businesses, cooperatives and non-profits from all regions may apply at any time until application intake closes.

Full program details, including additional eligibility criteria, application days by region, and how to apply, are outlined in the program guidelines.

A program web page and online application portal will launch on alberta.ca when application intake opens at 10 a.m. on June 29.

The grant program has a $200 million budget.