Alberta Small and Medium Enterprise Relaunch Grant

Apr 16 2021

Alberta Small and Medium Enterprise Relaunch Grant:

Full information here: https://www.alberta.ca/sme-relaunch-grant.aspx.

Funds can be used to:

  • Cover costs of items that help prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies.
  • Pay rent, employee wages or replace inventory.
  • Help businesses expand their online presence or e-commerce opportunities so that they can continue to serve customers.
  • If any other payments, grants or amounts were received from federal or provincial government sources or from insurance to replace or compensate for the loss of revenue (other than the sources listed above), your organization is not eligible to apply.

Eligibility:

  • You have faced restrictions or closures due to COVID-related public health orders.
  • Are open or plan to reopen as public health orders are lifted through Alberta’s phased relaunch.
  • You experienced 30% reduction in revenue loss.
  • You are an AB biz, cooperatives and non-profit organizations.
  • You have less than 500 employees (full time, part-time and contract combined)
  • To be eligible for the second payment organizations must have been required to curtail operations by the public health orders in effect from November 6, 2020 and later.
  • You have been open for biz between Feb 29, 2020 – Jan 31, 2021.
  • Existing organizations:
    • In operation as of February 29, 2020.
    • Must demonstrate a revenue reduction in April or May 2020 in comparison to April 2019, May 2019 or February 2020.
  • New organizations:
    • Commenced operations between March 1, 2020 and October 31, 2020.
    • Must demonstrate a revenue reduction of at least 30% in November or December 2020 in comparison to any month between March and October 2020.
  • Seasonal businesses:
    • May use the number of employees from the year prior to when the COVID-19 public health orders were introduced, or the average number of employees over the 3 years prior to the COVID-19 public health orders introduced.
    • If you only operate for part of the year may use their average monthly sales revenue for the full months they were in operation during 2019.
  • Organizations with multiple Alberta permanent physical establishments that have seen revenue reduction are eligible to apply for funding for each establishment. This includes scenarios where an organization has more than one location/chapter/branch that has seen revenue reduction of at least 30% due to COVID-19 public health orders. Applicants will be required to submit separate applications for each location/chapter/branch, and check the appropriate box in the application form.

Timeline:

  • Application portal will open next week.
  • It is scheduled to be open for applications until May 31, 2021.
  • Turnaround time from applications to funds in bank accounts will be 10 days.
  • Applications received before the previous SMERG program closure on March 31 will continue to be processed.