COVID-19 relief, recovery and resources - Alberta Innovates

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Our province has been significantly impacted.

As part of the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund, the Government of Canada through Western Economic Diversification Canada, has invested $1.3 million to provide supports to Alberta SMEs through COVID-19.

You’ll find information below designed to help Alberta innovators:

Learn about pandemic related program launches;
Find out if the status of a program has changed;
Find resources on a variety of topics related to the well-being of your staff, your business, and you;
Determine which government subsidies, loans or deferrals may apply;
Advance an idea for a solution, or supply a product through government procurement systems;
Develop strategies to identify opportunities in the current economic environment.

We'd love to hear from you. Tell us what resources you'd like to see on this page.

Share your ideas

Use the form linked below to ask questions, make comments or suggestions about the COVID Relief and Recovery Resource Page to Alberta Innovates.

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Join us

Our next webinar

Catalyzing growth through sales: proven strategies to build and win bigger deals

with David Hoffeld

Watch recordings from our Growth & Resiliency Speaker Series put on in partnership with Mount Royal University and Western Economic Diversification Canada.

We’re certain you’ll also find these presentations useful. Please enjoy! And let us know if you’d like to see any other resources using the form above.

Upcoming webinars

Mar 04, 2021

Relentless adaptation in the age of COVID-19: four lessons to thrive in chaos

About this event In this dynamic presentation, Amber Mac will take audiences on a visual journey to demonstrate how our...

Coping with recovery

Connect with experts and services

Discover Alberta Innovates programs!

Webinar and podcast recordings

Engage and Grow: Sales (paid event on February 10 from The Calgary Chamber)
Testing Business Ideas with Craig Elias from Bow Valley College (Runs February 19 and March 19. Contact Celias@bowvalleycollege.ca for more info.)
Peerpreneur Sessions (Business Link)
Hunter Centre Speaker Series (Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the UofC)
Legal Q&A – with Goodlawyer, January 26 (Business Link)
Shift podcast: Business during Covid-19 (Alberta Innovates)
How a crisis can help you cultivate a growth mindset (Harvard Business Review)
Podcast: Shifting Gears in a New Market (University of Calgary)
Conference Board of Canada, Carrying On: Mental Health Strategies for Covid-19
Small business resources for dealing with COVID-19 (CFIB)
Edmonton Startup Week recorded sessions (Oct 2020)
Post-Viral Marketing: Are you digital marketing ready? (University of Calgary)
Finding tomorrow’s resilients: Propelling companies into the next wave of growth (McKinsey)
Purpose vs PR: how business can find meaning in the COVID-19 era (McKinsey)
Reimagining organizations for post-pandemic times (McKinsey)
Operations in the next normal: Five themes to focus on (McKinsey)
Managing the operational and supply-chain impact of the coronavirus (McKinsey)
Driving digital change during a crisis: The chief digital officer and COVID-19 (McKinsey)
Building more resilient value chains (McKinsey)
Accelerating digital capabilities to recover from the COVID-19 crisis (McKinsey)

Documents

Tech Checkup: Dealing With Technology Change in Pandemic Recovery (Conference Board of Canada)
Six-step COVID-19 Business continuity plan for SMEs (pdf)
Business resilience and recovery during COVID-19 report (pdf)
Small business resources for dealing with COVID-19 (CFIB)
Navigating the human and business impact of COVID-19
The six step COVID-19 business continuity plan for SMEs (International Labour Organization (pdf)

Webinar and podcast recordings

Government funding to scale your manufacturing business, January 26 (Mentor Works)
Mobilizing Capital in the New Economy: Investors panel (NACO)
Point of Sale Systems Demystified (Apex Alberta)
Building more resilient value chains after the COVID-19 (McKinsey)
Five priorities for rapid revenue recovery during COVID-19 (McKinsey)
What should you do to get your business on the right track? Plan your COVID-Exit

Documents

COVID-19 response checklist for CFOs (McKinsey) (pdf)

Webinar and podcast recordings

Mental health in the workplace, January 21 (Calgary Chamber – paid event)
What you need to know, from an OH&S, as you prepare to re-launch your business during COVID-19 (Apex Alberta, May 8, 2020)

Documents

Webinar and podcast recordings

Documents

Learn how to manage stress in challenging times (Alberta Health Services, parts 1 & 2 – opens a pdf with registration links and dates)

Webinar and podcast recordings

Documents

How tech startups try to win over investors who got rich from oil and gas (CBC)

Read the news announcement on the two programs launched to help businesses navigate through Covid-19.

Here are some highlights of what we are doing to support Albertans and the global community.

The Alberta Innovation Network launches the Alberta Innovation Network GrowthX Program

The Alberta GrowthX Program is for technology and knowledge-based Alberta small and medium size enterprises with current sales looking to scale their growth.

This program will run as a limited cohort from December 2020 to March 2021, with pre-work to enter the cohort required from October 5, 2020 to November 10, 2020.

Alberta Innovates launches the Innovation Relief and Recovery program

This program is designed to provide COVID relief and recovery funding for pre- and post-revenue high potential, high growth, technology or knowledge-based Alberta small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Raising investment funds in the time of COVID

3D robotics supply chain company Attabotics raises $50 million USD in venture capital during a pandemic. Read more.

Further $2.1 million for COVID-19 research

Alberta Innovates is pleased to announce an additional $2.1 M investment in research and innovation projects that will slow the spread and lessen the impact of COVID-19.

Alberta Innovates again invests in COVID-19 rapid response

In partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, we’re pleased to announce the results of a second partnered investment to stop the spread and lessen the impact of COVID-19.

COVID-19 Hackathon

The Hackathon is now complete. Please see the list of winners. Thank you to everyone that participated.

COVID-19 rapid response funding opportunity

We’ve committed an initial $100,000 to support Alberta-led projects through this funding opportunity.

Alberta-led research to address the most challenging problems for COVID-19

We’ve partnered with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to commit $4.2 million to Alberta researchers

HOPE COVID-19 Study of HCQ

May 25, 2020 – Out of an abundance of caution for the safety of study participants, the University of Calgary has temporarily suspended enrollment into the Alberta HOPE COVID-19 trial looking into the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as an early intervention for COVID-19 until results from a WHO study and others that are ongoing can be reviewed. Follow-up and monitoring of patients enrolled in the trial will continue. We’ll keep you informed, posting updates as we receive more information.

Please note, these are not Alberta Innovates-run programs. We’ll do our best to ensure accuracy, but please refer to the web pages to see if specific programs are still available.

Program	Category	Description
Alberta Corporate Income Tax Deferral	Tax Deferral	Tax payments are deferred and corporate income tax filing due dates are extended.
Education Property Tax Deferral	Tax Deferral	Collection of non-residential education property tax for businesses will be deferred.
WCB Premium Payment Deferral	WCB Deferral	Premium payments are deferred. For small and medium businesses, the government will cover 50% of 2020 premiums when due in 2021.
Utility Payment Deferral	Utilities	Residential, farm, and small commercial customers can defer electricity and natural gas bill payments for 90 days.
Alberta Energy Regulator Levy	Tax Deferral	Providing economic relief to Alberta’s energy industry by funding the Alberta Energy Regulator levy.
Site Rehabilitation Program	Oil & Gas	Eligible oil and gas service companies can apply for grant funding to do abandonment and reclamation work on oil and gas sites in Alberta.

In addition to the $1.3 million in funding through the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund administered by the Government of Canada through Western Economic Diversification Canada to provide supports to Alberta SMEs, the federal government provides the additional supports outlined below.

Please note, these are not Alberta Innovates-run programs. We’ll do our best to ensure accuracy, but please refer to the web pages to see if specific programs are still available.

Program	Category	Description
Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS)	Staff Retention	Subsidy covers 75 percent of employee wages for businesses that have suffered a drop in gross revenues.
Temporary Wage Subsidy	Staff Retention	Short-term measure to allow businesses to reduce the required payroll deduction to the CRA.
Work-Sharing Program	Staff Retention	Extending the maximum duration of the Work-Sharing program to 76 weeks.
Time extension to pay income taxes	Tax Deferral	All businesses can defer, until after Aug 31, 2020, payment of any income tax amounts owing on or after March 18 and before September 2020.
Deferral of Sales Tax Remittance and Customs	Tax Deferral	All businesses can defer payments of the GST/HOST, as well as customs duty owing on their imports.
Business Credit Availability Program (BCAP)	Utilities, Rent, A/R Support, B2B Sales Support & Liability Maintenance	Provides $40 billion of additional support through the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Export Development Canada (EDC). Interested businesses should work with their current financial institutions.
Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA)	Utilities, Rent	Provides interest-free loans to small businesses and not-for-profits, to help cover operating costs. Businesses can apply through their banks and credit unions. See website and banks for details.
Farm Credit Canada COVID-19 Support	Utilities	Provide an additional $5 billion in lending to producers, agribusinesses, and food processors.
Innovation Assistance Program (IAP)	Staff Retention, IRAP Funding	IRAP IAP provides a wage subsidy to eligible employers for up to 12 weeks.
Commercial Rent Assistance	Rent	This program will lower rent by 75 percent for small businesses that have been affected by COVID-19.