Government Grants to support enhanced health & safety measures
The Government of Ontario is offering support for your enhanced health and safety measures in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As your trusted government funding advisor, Ayming would like to highlight a grant program now open that supports agricultural operations with enhanced health & safety efforts.
Applications for this program will be accepted for eligible items ordered on or after January 1, 2021 and received on or after March 13, 2021. Applications are received and assessed on a continuous basis, until funding is depleted or until the program close date of November 30, 2021. Funding is available and dispersed via the following categories:
- Category 1: Workplace COVID-19 Prevention: Supporting the adoption of prevention and mitigation measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 among agri-food workers/employees.
- Category 2: Responsive COVID-19 Outbreak Management: Reimburses eligible applicants who have been impacted by outbreaks of COVID-19 and faced with extraordinary costs related to employee wage supports and worker/employee isolation.
Project Category 1 – Workplace COVID-19 Prevention
Businesses Eligible to Submit Expenses
A business that employs three or more paid workers/employees and is one of the following:
- An established farm business that is a legal entity and produces agricultural commodities in Ontario under a valid Farm Business Registration Number (FBRN), or an allowable religious or cultural exemption.
- A business that is a legal entity located in Ontario that provides primary food processing for fruit and vegetable crops. Primary food processing involves cutting, cleaning, packaging, storage and refrigeration of raw plant foods to ensure that they are not spoiled before they reach the consumer.
- A business that is a legal entity located in Ontario and provides one of the following on-farm services where agriculture employees operate within close proximity of one another:
- chicken catchers, corn detasselers, hatcheries, or transporters of agricultural commodities
Available Cost-Share Funding
- 60% funding of eligible expenses
- Funding is limited to $15,000 per business/ per property
Eligible Activities
Activities directly related to COVID-19 that are necessary to address the health and safety of on-farm and primary processing agri-food workers/employees:
- Minor modifications throughout an agricultural operation, worker/employee housing, or worker/employee transportation systems to promote appropriate safety with regards to physical distancing needs (e.g., physical barriers).
- Providing workers/employees with rapid COVID-19 antigen testing, personal protective equipment and other approved safety supplies for use throughout an agricultural operation, worker/employee housing or worker/employee transportation systems to prevent disease spread.
- Cleaning and disinfection throughout an agricultural operation, worker/employee housing or worker/employee transportation systems.
- Providing arrangements to support worker/employee accommodations and work-site mobility that are necessary to address immediate health and safety issues due to COVID-19.
Program Category 2 – Responsive COVID-19 Outbreak Management
Businesses Eligible to Submit Expenses
A business that employs three or more paid employees and is one of the following:
- An established farm business that is a legal entity and produces agricultural commodities in Ontario under a valid Farm Business Registration Number (FBRN), or an allowable exemption.
- A business that is a legal entity located in Ontario that provides primary food processing for fruit and vegetable crops. Primary food processing involves cutting, cleaning, packaging, storage and refrigeration of raw plant foods to ensure that they are not spoiled before they reach the consumer.
- A business that is a legal entity located in Ontario and provides one of the following on-farm services where agriculture employees operate within close proximity of one another:
- chicken catchers, corn detasselers, hatcheries, or transporters of agricultural commodities.
Available Cost-Share Funding
- 100% funding of eligible expenses
Eligible Activities
Activities directly related to COVID-19 outbreaks on-farm and in primary processing operations and on-farm services:
- Eligible employer businesses are able to claim up to five weeks of wages that have been paid to each worker/employee exclusively for the period of time they were unable to work due to a COVID-positive test result, or a Public Health Unit/Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development order related to COVID-19 (‘Self-isolation Period’). This does not include wages that were paid to any worker/employee for initial self-isolation when the worker/employee arrived in Canada to start work.
- Providing alternate accommodations for employees, transportation and incremental meal costs necessary for workers/employees in self-isolation.
- Providing employees with ancillary accommodation expenses necessary for the employee during self-isolation.
Why Ayming?
Our team of experts will take the time to understand your current and future planned projects. We will then align these initiatives to the program in order to provide you with the highest ROI and the highest chance of approval.
- We are the first Canadian company to establish a national grants practice.
- Our proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) driven database of grants provides live access to thousands of programs, including a custom snapshot of all federal and provincial grants currently available to each company specifically.
- Our highly experienced delivery teams boast over 50 + years of combined grants experience and over 200+ years of combined SR&ED experience, meaning you partner with true subject matter experts who are invested in your success.
- No risk success-fee remuneration.