Duncan Approves COVID-19 Grant Program

DUNCAN, BC – City Council has approved a grant program intended to support residents and businesses that have been impacted by COVID-19 by leveraging other funding or encouraging “made in Duncan” concepts.

The grant is intended to encourage creative thinking by local organizations to create programs and concepts that will support businesses and residents affected by the pandemic. This opportunity supports organizations to start new programs that would not qualify for provincial or federal funding opportunities, or to leverage existing funding.

Applicants must be registered organizations, individual applicants will not qualify, and they must have an office located in the Cowichan Valley.

Programs/Activities/Events must support businesses or residents or both impacted by COVID-19 or establish recovery programs; demonstrate that the organization has exhausted other potential opportunities for funding from local, provincial, and federal sources; focus substantially on City businesses or residents or both; and funds must not be used to pay existing staff members’ salaries. Please see the COVID-19 Grant-in-Aid Application Form for more details.

“Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, City staff and Council have been working tirelessly to ensure essential services are maintained, while keeping people safe. We know this pandemic is challenging for many of our residents and business community members. As we move through this, we all need to find ways to support the innovation required for the resilience and recovery necessary to build a strong future. Every investment we make at a local level has returns that ripple out to benefit us all,” says Mayor Staples.

The maximum grant amount is $10,000 per organization. The City has set aside up to $100,000 for this program. As it was recently determined that the scheduled Government/Kenneth Street project would be unlikely to proceed as planned due to potential changes to the route and design, it provided this opportunity to fund the grant program by deferring the project, not using current tax revenues.  However, since $100,000 of capital spending is being deferred to 2021, it will also cause another 2021 capital project to be deferred to a future year.

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For more information, please contact:

Michelle Staples,
Mayor
(250) 466-9412
mayor@duncan.ca

Peter de Verteuil, CAO
250-746-6126
peter@duncan.ca

Previous efforts by the City to support businesses and residents impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Moved the penalty date for taxes to October 1st for all property owners.
• Waived water penalties for March 31st and April 30th
• Waived parking fees for the months of April and May
• Continually review the business supports available and lobby the provincial government
• Increased daytime and nighttime Bylaw Enforcement patrols throughout the City
• Worked to complete downtown construction projects while a lot of businesses are closed
• Implemented an interim Neighbourhood COVID Watch program
• Implemented a Mayor’s COVID-19 Vulnerable Population Cowichan Task Force
• Implemented a Mayor’s COVID-19 Food Security Task Force
• Continued to provide all City services, some in a modified fashion
• Continued to provide Public Washrooms, with additional cleanings per day
• Lobbied the provincial government to expand the property tax deferral program to those experiencing hardship due to COVID-19
• Reduced Council and staff travel and conference budgets by 50%,
• Reduced the tax increase from 3.16% to 2.51%