Update:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the $1 billion regional relief and recovery fund will assist the tourism sector and seasonal businesses that did not qualify for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy or the Canada Emergency Business Account.
The funding will flow through the six regional development agencies in Canada, including FedDev Ontario and FedNor, with a portion of that funding going towards the Community Futures Network in order to assist businesses in remote and rural regions.
In other news, the prime minister announced that students and recent graduates can begin applying for the Canada Emergency Student Benefit beginning this Friday.
Original story:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds his regular media briefing on COVID-19 from Ottawa this morning at 11 a.m.
It is suspected that the federal government will disclose details of the nearly $1 billion in emergency aid to be doled out to small businesses through its six regional economic development agencies.
The government announced several weeks ago the creation of a new Regional Relief and Recovery Fund but did not reveal much in the way of detail, apart from the overall amount of $962 million.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Economic Development Minister Melanie Joly are expected to fill in some of the blanks today, including how much money each of the six regional agencies — for the West, North, Atlantic, Quebec and northern and southern Ontario — are to receive and what each plans to do with it.
The media briefing will be streamed live on Trudeau’s Facebook page, and Village Media will carry the livestream
