We continue to work with our public affairs firm, Crestview Strategy, to secure more meetings and look forward to sharing more details as we have them. The timing of our meetings with government has been a well crafted strategy initiated by Crestview whereby our presentations are made in the direct lead up to the federal budget, in an effort to have more resonance. To this end, the announcement this week that the Liberal Government will not table the budget in the House in March, but instead sometime between mid-April to mid-May, is good news for CAEM as we plan for more meetings.
To date CAEM has met with the following:
- Galen Richardson, Regional Advisor, Office of the Minister of Economic Development
- Earl Dreeshen, MP for Red Deer- Mountain View
- Pat Kelly, MP for Calgary Rocky Ridge – Shadow Minister Western Economic Development
- James Cumming, MP for Edmonton Centre – Shadow Minister COVID -19 Recovery
- Ed Fast, MP for Abbotsford- Shadow Minister Finance
- Sebastien Lemire, MP for Abitibi—Témiscamingue
Regional Relief And Recovery Fund ( RRRF)
In our meeting with Galen Richardson from the Office of the Minister of Economic Development, we learned that our industry is not excluded from applying for the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund (RRRF). While this funding stream is comprised of loans, we thought it was important to draw it to your attention as there is still time to apply before the March 31st deadline. For more information about the RRRF fund and details regarding the application process in your region, click here.
CEWS & CERS
CAEM was heartened to hear the news last week that the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy ( CEWS) and Canadian Emergency Rent Subsidy ( CERS) have been extended to June 2021. In our meetings with government we continue to reiterate that these programs will be essential to our industry when we are allowed to re-open, recognizing that our businesses have seen little to no revenue since March 2020, with no immediate relief in site. We also highlight the need for the CERS criteria be expanded to include rent paid by show producers to venues once re-opening begins. The same way retail stores in shopping malls are eligible for the rent subsidy, producers of trade and consumer shows should also be able to apply for this subsidy to cover their rental fees payable to their respective venues.
