The council for the Town of Peace River, as well as Community Futures Peace Country have been putting their heads together.
The objective was to come up with a plan to support businesses within town that have faced financial hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At Tuesday’s Governance and Priorities Meeting, council discussed the proposal put forward by Community Futures General Manager, Randy Hodgkinson.
According to the document shown to council, the program would cost $85,000, with the town contributing $75,000 of the amount, while Community Futures would cover the remaining $10,000.
Mayor Tom Tarpey says this initiative has been in the works for quite some time.
“A number of members of council asked Randy (Hodgkinson) to develop a business recovery program,” says Tarpey.
“There is support for it on council but it hasn’t undergone any vote yet.”
Council will meet again later this month.
According to the program, if it passes, applications could open on May 1 and it would be split into three phases.
Phase one would accept up to 50 participants who are eligible to receive up to 10 hours of coaching and other supports..
In phase two, the amount is doubled to 20 hours for coaching or other supports, but the eligibility amount drops to 25.
Phase three would be addressed on a case-by-case basis.
The document goes onto say that this initiative was not budgeted for originally, and would cost less-than 0.3 percent of the town’s budget.
You can see the proposed Business Recovery Support Program by clicking here.
– Kenny Trenton, Trending 55 Newsroom
