Sault Ste. Marie stepping up to help local businesses

The city of Sault Ste. Marie is looking at ways it can help businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Municipal officials hosted a conference call with local businesses yesterday, with about 100 people joining in.

Tom Vair, the deputy CAO with the city, said he wants business owners to know about supports announced by the province and Ottawa.

There are also some existing programs through the city which could be useful at this time, Vair said, as many business owners have questions.

"Things like, would there be an opportunity to defer taxes if this continues on?" he said. "Certainly we've heard interestfrom businesses looking at time of use billing, and adjusting rates or postponing payments for utility accounts."

"That's at our utility, not at the city, but ideas like that are things that are certainly circulating, and calls and suggestions that we're getting."

The Community Development Corporation of Sault Ste. Marie also has existing loan programs in place that companies can use to support businesses, Vair said.

"Our innovation centre had an existing program that would help companies improve their IT infrastructure to support their growth."

"So that may be of assistance to people when they're looking at doing remote work for staff, and gearing up their IT infrastructure to accommodate that, or even do online sales," he said.

Business owners interested in programs available can visit the city's website, which will be continuing to update its information as it becomes available.

The city also created a new business hotline, where people can speak with economic development staff at 705-574-1220 or emailhotline@cityssm.on.ca

Vair added there are plans to host more conference calls in the coming weeks.