Almost $6M in COVID reopening grants not claimed by businesses, says city

Nearly half of $13 million in reopening grants for Calgary businesses hurt by the pandemic has not been given out after a lack of applications.

The grantsapproved earlier this year bycity council targeted restaurants, bars, pubs, fitness centres and entertainment venues like nightclubs.

Council estimated 3,800of these businesses faced temporary or full-scale shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, ameeting ofcouncil's priorities and finance committeeWednesday revealed that almost $6 million remains unspent after only 2,240 applications were received.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi says city council will discuss next week how to get the remaining money out the door to help local businesses.

• Small businesses quick to apply for Calgary reopening grants

"We had a lot of businesses that just didn't apply, which to me is a shame,but Ipushed hard, and we sent a postcard to every single business, made it as simple as possible to apply," he said.

"Alot of folks, Iguess,are just too busy running their business to actually have time to even work on this stuff."

The program ran from July 2 to August 10 and had around 19,000 visitors to the website, says the city.

Coun. Evan Woolleyassumed the grants would be oversubscribed and questions how council missed the mark.

He says he'dlike the leftover money to go to businesses now being hurt by the province's decision to halt liquor sales at 10 p.m.