Helpful Resources and Information for Businesses During COVID19

As the pandemic continues to ravage the lives of everyday Canadians, business-owners are among those that have been especially hit hard by Coronavirus. Fortunately, the government has taken numerous measures to help Canadian businesses stay afloat during these troubling economic times.

Below are useful resources and information that can help you, as a business owner. If you are not a business owner, please consider sharing these resources with local businesses or friends of yours that have a business of their own!

• The city of Markham has waived all stormwater fees which saves both residential owners and businesses money. Businesses save more money depending on their property value.
• Property taxes for businesses have been waived until December 31^st.
• Self-employed workers are eligible to apply for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to receive financial assistance from the government. As a business-owner, this means that you are eligible, provided you meet the criteria outlined for CERB.
• To prevent lay-offs for employees, employers and their employee(s) can apply for the work-sharing program, which would mean that employees work reduced hours during the present circumstances.
• The Employer Contact Centre can provide guidance to employers on areas such as Record of Employments (ROE), information on work-sharing, and much more.
• If you’re finding yourself in the fortunate situation of being able to re-open your business, and want to hire new workers, Job Bank will allow you to advertise for free, across several job search platforms in Canada.
• Digital Main Street Initiative offers help to businesses – anywhere from free webinars to free website development.

These are but a few helpful resources to help you navigate the challenges that are up ahead. If you are not a business owner, but want to help local Markham businesses, the following website has a list of local businesses that are open to the community.

Let us do our best to support our local businesses, so that we may all come out of this stronger together!