Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program (HASCAP) launched

Today, the Honourable Mary Ng, Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, announced the launch of the Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program, or HASCAP. As first outlined in the 2020 Fall Economic Statement, HASCAP will provide financial support to businesses that have been hardest hit by the pandemic.

Through HASCAP, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) will work with participating Canadian financial institutions to offer government-guaranteed, low-interest loans of up to $1 million. Hard-hit businesses, like a chain of hotels or restaurants with multiple locations under one related entity, could be eligible for up to $6.25 million.

HASCAP is available to businesses across the country, in all sectors, that have been hit hard by the pandemic. This includes restaurants, businesses in the tourism and hospitality sectors, and those that rely on in-person service.

To be eligible for HASCAP, businesses need to show a year-over-year revenue decline of at least 50% in three months, within the eight months prior to their application. They must also be able to show their financial institutions that they have previously applied for either the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy or the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy.

Eligible businesses can start applying as early as February 1 at principal financial institutions and more widely by February 15. Interested businesses should contact their primary lender to get more information and to apply.

More information is available at www.bdc.ca/hascap.

Chambers of Commerce, governments oppose U.S. “Buy American” policy

U.S. President Joe Biden imposed new rules for U.S. government spending, mandating the government to buy made-in-the-U.S.A. products and allowing exceptions in “very limited circumstances.”

The GNCC has always been opposed to trade protectionism on the grounds that beggar-thy-neighbour trade policies are intrinsically unable to increase the creation of wealth and prosperity. Retaliatory policies from other countries are likely, which decreases the overall volume of international trade – always an unsound policy, but especially wrongheaded during an economic downturn.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce stated that “Buy American restrictions remain a perennial problem for Canadian businesses seeking to access government contracts with our largest trading partner. The rules have progressively tightened over the years, and today’s announcement represents another unhelpful step to make it more difficult for Canadian businesses to secure contracts in the U.S.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has historically opposed all Buy American policies, and noted yesterday that previous Buy American directives had, generally speaking, failed to reshore any substantial industry to the United States in any event.

The Honourable Vic Fedeli, Ontario Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, said that the Ontario government was “disappointed that the U.S. Administration has chosen to move ahead with a new Executive Order on Buy American which would restrict access to the U.S. government procurement.” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland opined that the Government of Canada “knows how to deal with” U.S. protectionism.

Government of Ontario to invest in modernizing small and rural municipalities

The Ontario government is investing over $40 million during COVID-19 to help small and rural municipalities improve the delivery of critical programs and services. The funding, under the Municipal Modernization Program, is part of the government’s $125 million investment through 2022-23 to help small and rural municipalities become more efficient and save taxpayers’ dollars.

The Municipal Modernization Program helps Ontario’s 405 small and rural municipalities find better, more efficient ways to operate and serve their residents. Municipalities can use the funding to conduct reviews of service delivery and administrative expenditures to find efficiencies or implement a range of projects, including developing an online system to improve the local process for approving residential and industrial developments or setting up new shared services with neighbouring municipalities.

Last year, Ontario funded 184 modernization projects led by small and rural municipalities, including service delivery reviews which found $3 million in potential annual savings for Elgin County and up to $5 million in savings over 10 years in the Township of Douro-Dummer.

New visitor restrictions at Niagara Health to begin Thursday, January 28

Beginning Thursday, January 28, Niagara Health will restrict general visitation across all sites to limit traffic in the hospital as part of their ongoing COVID-19 response.

As of Thursday, visitation at the hospital will be permitted if the individual:

• is supporting a patient in exceptional circumstances; or
• has been designated as an Essential Care Partner (ECP) for a patient.

Support persons may accompany outpatients and visit with inpatients to provide support in exceptional circumstances. Exceptions would also be made for patients coming to our Emergency Departments/Urgent Care Centres. Among the factors the care team may consider are: supporting patients in life altering circumstances, experiencing a mental health crisis, are at end of life, or are vulnerable (cognitive, developmentally delayed, language impairment, physical challenges). In the case of outpatients and inpatients, support persons should contact the care team in advance to discuss the process. In the case of our Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Centres, the triage nurse will assess a patient’s eligibility for a support person.

To learn more about these guidelines, please call the unit directly where the patient is receiving care, visit our website or call our Switchboard at 905-378-4647.

Reading recommendations

Working from home is starting to fall apart, top bankers warn

Silla Brush, Bloomberg News/Financial Post

Senior bankers are sounding the alarm: working from home is at risk of not working anymore.

“I don’t think it’s sustainable,” Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley said Tuesday at the World Economic Forum. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s asset- and wealth-management boss, Mary Erdoes, agreed.

Both executives spoke by videoconference as the pandemic has meant the WEF has gone virtual for the first time, rather than its usual mass gathering of prominent corporate and government figures in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

The Emotional Tax of Essential Work

Gabrielle Drolet, The Walrus

COVID-19 outbreaks keep occurring at customer-facing businesses, and case numbers are surging as a result. Although Canada does provide a federal COVID-19 sickness benefit, it is inaccessible or inadequate for many essential workers, who are exposed to workplace outbreaks at higher rates—the list of affected businesses has grown to include restaurants, fast-food chains, and big-box stores.

The belief that employees should keep their heads down and do what they’re told—even if it involves being mistreated by customers—is a problem that existed long before the pandemic. The customer-service industry is built on emotional labour, a culture in which employees are expected to smile and be kind no matter the cost. Most customer-service employees likely don’t have the financial stability to leave a job because of unsafe conditions or for their mental health. Speaking up may mean getting fired—and, during a recession, the stakes of losing work are even higher.