Enthusiasm of tourism SMEs for new federal financial support

The Société d’aide au développement de la collectivité des Îles is seeing strong interest in Ottawa’s new financial assistance for small and medium-sized tourism businesses in Quebec.

Its general manager, Daniel Gaudet, said he received a « good volume of applications » at the end of the call for projects that closed Monday.

The organization will distribute a total of $253,000 to businesses that submitted applications to improve tourism services in a post-pandemic context, explains Gaudet.

This could include minor building renovations or equipment purchases, he says, adding that initiatives must be completed within a very short time frame, i.e. by the end of March.

The amount awarded per company can range from $15 to $45,000.

An initial screening will be done on the files received, and then a list will be sent for approval to the CFDC network, which manages the $20 million envelope allocated to it, which is half of the overall budget of the federal program.

Daniel Gaudet hopes to be able to give an answer to the applicant companies in the first week of February.