On Friday, the Federal Government has announced funding for 24 of Saskatchewan’s leading organizations to help small businesses in the province.

Terry Duguid, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages, says the investment will see $1.9 million for the province, including $225,000 to the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce. He says the funding will go towards assessing the impact of COVID-19 on rural labour markets, while providing support to communities and companies to integrate Indigenous, immigrant, youth and women workers into local workplaces. Duguid explains the federal government knows from labour market reports that workers from these groups have been amoung the most negatively impacted during the COVID-19 crisis.

Duguid anticipates that Friday’s announcement will help preserve over 340 jobs and directly or indirectly affect assist more than 2600 small businesses in Saskatchewan. He explains the federal government committed to creating 1 million jobs during the speech from the throne, and this funding is part of the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund. Duguid concludes we need small businesses to survive the pandemic and they should be poised to grow when markets.

Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce CEO, Steve McLellan, says the funding will benefit local chambers across the province. He says the chamber will use the funding towards a legacy piece that will act to get people back into the workforce in their old jobs or sometimes in new ones. McLellan says with women being one of the hardest hit labour pool sectors during the pandemic, the chamber wants to help get women back into the workforce in areas they want to go, in a sustainable manner. McLellan says with better digital capacity across the country, they are looking at helping gig workers, and rural residents, so they can work better from home. He suggest they hope to be able to assist those who want a better social media or digital presence.

The funding in this announcement goes to not-for-profit organizations that aim to help local businesses survive. The 24 organizations include: