QIA extends deadline for small Inuit-owned businesses to apply for emergency subsidies

Inuit-owned businesses in Nunavut’s Qikiqtani region are being offered an extended deadline to tap into emergency wage subsidies.

The subsidies are offered by the Qikiqtani Inuit Association’s business arm, the Kakivak Association. The aim of the deadline extension, which has been pushed to the end of September, is to allow more Inuit-owned businesses to access the emergency support and retain their Inuit employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, the QIA said in a news release on June 11.

Kakivak committed $1.5 million to the two new temporary COVID-19 programs in April.

The subsidies are intended to help the smallest, most vulnerable Inuit-owned businesses in the Qikiqtani region, and to help ensure that Inuit remain employed.

The $1-million Qikiqtani COVID-19 Emergency Wage Subsidy Program provides businesses with up to $20 an hour for each employee who would be laid off without the subsidy. Up to $1,500 is available for training per employee for businesses that use this time to bolster their staff’s skills.

The $500,000 Qikiqtani COVID-19 Business Relief Program provides small Inuit-owned businesses in the region with nonrepayable contributions of up to $25,000 for each eligible applicant.

Businesses that have been forced to lay off staff, close, or have a significant decrease in revenues can apply for one or both programs to help maintain their operations and staff for the period between March 15 and Sept. 30.

In order to be considered for support, applicants must be able to demonstrate their need for assistance by providing details about the current status of their business, as well as information about the normal fixed operating costs of their business, such as wages, rent, heat, electricity, communications, licences and insurance.

The money for the Qikiqtani COVID-19 Emergency Wage Subsidy Program comes from Kakivak’s existing wage subsidy program funded through the Indigenous Skills and Employment Training Program agreement.

The money for the Qikiqtani COVID-19 Business Relief Program comes from a reserve of unspent Sivummut Funds transferred to Kakivak by the QIA. Sivummut grants are available for eligible Inuit-owned businesses to support the establishing or expansion of their businesses.

Business owners may access these programs as well as federal COVID-19 relief programs, Kakivak’s manager of partnerships and planning, Glenn Cousins, said, but Kakivak will work with its partners to try to reduce any duplication.