Regional Relief and Recovery Fund (RRRF)

In southern Ontario, $252.4 million is available as follows:

• $213 million for SMEs facing financial pressure; and
• $39.4 million to provide rural businesses with access to capital and technical support, delivered by southern Ontario’s Community Futures Development Corporations.

Funding available through RCCFDC:
In order to provide targeted assistance to the small towns and communities they serve, RCCFDC will focus on assisting sole proprietorship “main street” businesses, such as retail shops, restaurants, corner stores, and businesses of strategic importance to their communities, with loans up to $40,000.

Details of the RRRF Loan:

• Maximum assistance will be $40,000
• 0% interest and no principal payments until December 31, 2022
• Principal repayments can be voluntarily made at any time
• 5% (not to exceed $10,000) of the loan can be forgiven provided the recipient has paid 75% of the original loan amount prior to December 31, 2022
• If the recipient is unable to repay the loan by December 31, 2022, the loan will be converted to a three-year term loan with interest rates of 5%, effective January 1, 2023. The full balance must be repaid no later than December 31, 2025.
• Grants and non-repayable contributions are prohibited

Eligible RCCFDC applicants must also meet the following criteria:

• Established prior to March 1, 2020;
• Impacted adversely by the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Viable and not experiencing other financial difficulties prior to March 1, 2020;
• Have attempted to access other federal relief supports and were ineligible, rejected, or require funding for expenses that have not been supported, with priority given to applicants who were ineligible or rejected from other federal relief supports.

Applications can be submitted for loans of up to $40,000 to help address working capital needs.

**The application form will be posted to the website by 4PM Tuesday, May 19, 2020.**

To Apply:

• Go to www.rccfdc.org/financing.
• Scroll down to the fillable form; enter your contact information and click “send.”
• An application will be automatically sent to your email address. Please note the application will not be live until Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 4 PM EST. If you don’t receive the application within five minutes (don’t forget to check your junk mail), contact info@rccfdc.org.
• Email your completed application to submissions@rccfdc.org.

Should you be interested in a loan of $40,000 or more and meet the eligibility criteria outlined on FedDev Ontario’s website, you may wish to apply to FedDev Ontario directly.