Financial Resources
This year, for the first year ever, the Outdoor Recreation Council of BC (ORCBC) is offering a limited number of small, one-time micro grants of $300 each to help outdoor groups host BC Rivers Day events in their community.
Businesses and non-profit organizations that provide tourism experiences within British Columbia are eligible to receive funding from Destination BC, through their BC Tourism Climate Resilience Initiative, of up to $15,000 to implement a project or obtain sustainability certification.
Tourism Kamloops has recently announced a new RFP funding opportunity, the Destination Events Support Fund. They are seeking proposals from businesses and organizations who want to develop annual destination events in Kamloops between October and April.
A new program aimed at sparking and supporting innovative tourism ideas along the Rainforest to Rockies iconic route across southern British Columbia was announced by Destination BC, in partnership with Tourism Innovation Lab, TOTA, and other tourism partners.
The Rainforest to Rockies “Spark” Mentorships & Grants Program will match selected applicants with a tourism mentor and provide a $3,000 grant and additional partner support to help take their new tourism ideas to the next level of development.
The B.C. Employer Training Grant is a cost-sharing grant program that provides employers throughout B.C. with skills training funding for their workforces, including prospective new hires. Employers can receive 80% of the cost of training up to $10,000 per employee, with a maximum annual amount per employer of $300,000.
B.C. non-profit societies, charities, and Indigenous-led organizations can apply for multi-year, flexible grants from the Vancouver Foundation. Grants from the Recovery and Resiliency Fund will provide stable funding for organizations to strengthen their operational capacity to help with recovery and longer-term resiliency.
This fund will provide:
$50,000-$72,000 flexible grant per year for 3 years to charities and non-profit societies in BC that provide community benefit and have operating budgets of less than $1 million;
Flexible grants for Indigenous-led organizations with annual revenues of more than $1 million. These organizations can apply through New Relationship Trust.
Applications open until September 30, 2022.
The Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) provides support to help get your business online, give your e-commerce presence a boost, or help digitalize your business's operations. CDAP provides funding and support to businesses, as well as training and work opportunities for young Canadians.
There are two streams:
Grow Your Business Online: Micro-grant and access to e-commerce advisors to help you go digital and take advantage of e-commerce opportunities.
Boost Your Business Technology: Grant to help you develop a digital plan and funded work placements to help with your digital transformation.
Which grant is your business eligible for?
Propel is a federally funded Student Work Placement Program offering paid work-integrated learning opportunities in the tourism and hospitality sector. Propel offers employers a wage subsidy of up to 75% of a qualifying student’s wages, to a maximum of $7,500.
A new $34-million fund for non-profit groups in British Columbia will provide much-needed support for organizations that were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to struggle during recovery.
The focus of the new fund is to support organizations whose staff, volunteers, programs, and operations have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Funding will fill crucial gaps not covered by other funding sources, such as gaming grants, with a focus on building organizational resilience.
The fund is anticipated to launch in June 2022. To stay up to date on the fund, interested organizations can subscribe to Vancouver Foundation.
Okanagan College is currently offering low-cost programming to support the Tourism and Hospitality sector throughout the summer months. They are pleased to offer short courses delivered online that will fit both your schedule and provide additional support.
Employers may be reimbursed for 60% of training costs through the BC Employer Training Grant (ETG), a reimbursement program from WorkBC for employers to support workforce training. The Okanagan College training programs falls into the Workforce Training Stream.
The CleanBC Communities Fund (CCF) intake 3 is now accepting applications to fund projects that support the management of renewable energy, access to clean energy transportation, improved energy efficiency of buildings, and generation of clean energy. The fund invests in public infrastructure owned by local governments, Indigenous communities, not-for-profits and projects in partnership with for-profit entities.
The federal government announced that the application portals for business subsidy programs will open on the following dates:
Period 24: February 7, 2022
Period 25: March 1, 2022
Regulatory changes announced in December temporarily expand eligibility for wage and commercial rent support for businesses and other organizations under the Local Lockdown Program. These changes would:
Apply to claim periods 24 and 25 (December 19, 2021, to February 12, 2022)
Allow those entities to qualify if they are subject to a capacity-limiting public health restriction of 50 per cent or more
Reduce the current-month revenue decline threshold requirement to 25 per cent for those entities
As a reminder, the federal subsidies available are:
The Province of B.C. has introduced the COVID-19 Closure Relief Grant aimed at assisting B.C. businesses that were mandated to temporarily shut down through public health orders because of the surge in COVID-19 cases under the December 22, 2021 and/or January 18, 2022 Provincial Health Officer orders.
The COVID-19 Closure Relief Grant is extended and supports doubled for eligible businesses that have been ordered to remain temporarily closed through public health measures until February 16, 2022.
Apply by February 28, 2022.
The Tourism Accommodation and Commercial Recreation Relief Fund is a response to the Tourism Task Force’s recommendation to provide relief from fixed costs like property taxes, BC Hydro fees, and Crown tenure and park permit fees.
One-time grants to offset certain fixed costs are available for:
Large accommodation providers
Tourism-based commercial recreation businesses operating on Crown land or in BC Parks
The Tourism Relief Fund supports tourism businesses, non-profits, and organizations to adapt operations to meet public health requirements while investing in products and services to facilitate future growth.
UPDATE: Indigenous sole proprietors are now eligible under the Tourism Relief Fund (TRF) with costs qualified on a retroactive basis up to twelve months prior to the receipt of a project application, but no earlier than April 19, 2021.
To help small- and medium-sized tourism businesses prepare for international markets, the CanExport SMEs program is accepting new applications for projects starting after April 1, 2022.
For-profit businesses with $100,000 to $100 million in annual revenue can receive funding up to 50 percent of eligible costs, or between $10,000 and $50,000 per project. The program includes search engine optimization, translation and virtual trade events, and support costs tied to online advertising on social media platforms, online marketplaces and search engines.
The following federal business recovery programs are available to support your business:
Note: If you applied for the Tourism & Hospitality Recovery Program (THRP) for period 22 (October 24 to November 20, 2021), you may have been affected by an error in the calculation spreadsheet for wage and hiring support, which erroneously showed they were ineligible for the THRP when they may have been eligible.
The new BC Farmers’ Market Expansion Program will support the expansion of farmers’ markets to accommodate more vendors and maintain operations during emergencies to ensure communities throughout B.C. have continued access to food. The one-time program is providing $475,000, with up to $15,000 available for each eligible applicant.
Applications will be accepted until Jan. 28, 2022 on a first-come, first-served basis or until available funding has been fully committed.
The Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit (CWLB) gives temporary income support to employed and self-employed people who cannot work due to a COVID-19 lockdown.
The CWLB is only available when a COVID-19 lockdown order is designated for a province or region.
Those eligible for the CWLB, can receive $300 ($270 after taxes withheld) for each 1-week period and apply for any weeks their region is eligible between October 24, 2021 and May 7, 2022.
The new Local Lockdown Program is a way non-tourism and hospitality businesses, charities, and non-profits affected by a qualifying public health restriction can be eligible for wage and rent support through the Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program (THRP).
Women in B.C. with a desire for training in the culinary, beverage, or hospitality fields are invited to apply for Les Dames d’Escoffier BC Scholarship Program to receive partial funds to an educational institution/course of their choice.
All scholarships are awarded based on merit, ability, commitment, and passion, and may range in value anywhere between $1,000 – $2,000 depending on funds available, program requirements and approved applicants.
Apply by January 31, 2022. Scholarships will be awarded in March 2022.
The Reopening Fund is a one-year funding initiative through the Celebration and Commemoration Program to support initiatives that will:
increase opportunities for Canadians to participate in various commemorative activities and celebrations to mark Canada’s emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic; or
build a sense of pride and belonging to Canada by holding celebratory and commemorative activities that recognize people and achievements in the response to COVID-19 ; and / or
support the revival of local economies through in-person events.
Canadian not-for-profit organizations, for-profit organizations with non-commercial projects, educational institutions, and government institutions are eligible to apply.
The deadline to apply is January 10, 2022.
Applications for the B.C. Increased Employment Incentive must be received by December 31st.
The BC Increased Employment Incentive is a one-time refundable tax credit for employers which encouraged the creation of new jobs for BC workers or increases in payroll for existing low or middle-income employees in the last quarter ending December 31st.
The tax credit is calculated at 15% of the amount that the employer’s eligible remuneration for the last quarter exceeds the employer’s eligible remuneration for the quarter ending September 30th, 2020.
Arts and culture groups throughout B.C. can now apply for the Arts Impact Grant to receive as much as $30,000. This adaptable grant is available through the BC Arts Council in response to feedback from arts and culture groups. All non-profit organizations with an arts and culture mandate, and Indigenous governments and community organizations offering dedicated arts and culture programming, are eligible to apply.