STEPHEN RICCIO
CLARENDON Sept. 2, 2020
What appeared in March to be a summer of survival turned into one of opportunity for Ginger Finan, owner of GELAM Riding Stables.
When COVID-19 blew up normalcy at the time, Finan applied for a loan from SADC Pontiac to deal with the financial blow of her riding lessons being cancelled.
“I was panicking about paying for hay, there [were] no camps,” Finan explained. “So when I got the news that I would have the relief fund, the relief I felt was . . .
‘Oh my God, I’m gonna be able to feed my horses’, and I didn’t have to put up my horses for sale.”
However, since the opening of day camps, it is businesses like Finan’s that have been fortunate enough to see an increase in traffic.
“Then I just had the surge,” she said, explaining that she went from 49 riders in 2019 to 75 this summer.
The contribution is worth $40,000, 30 of which is a loan and ten of which is a grant, and it is one of 23 that has been given out to Pontiac businesses by the SADC through the MRC’s FARR business fund since the beginning of the pandemic.
These interest-free loans must be repaid by the end of 2022 for $10,000 of it to remain a grant.
Finan was accompanied at the stables on Sept. 2 by Pontiac MP Will Amos, SADC Pontiac Director General Rhonda Perry and SADC Pontiac Business Advisor Amy Taylor as they announced the $965,854 that has been distributed throughout the region.
“I think the investment speaks for itself, at a macro scale, we’re talking about nearly $1 million that’s been injected into the regional economy,” Amos said.
Amos added that something that is unique to this program when compared to the Canadian Emergency Bank Account (CEBA) program that was set up for businesses is that the near $1 million will remain within the local SADC for future needs.
Perry said that the SADC worked with businesses locally to determine which ones were most suitable for the loans.
“Everything has been [done] locally. We handled all of the applications locally as the SADC with our staff and then they were approved in Quebec City.”
For Finan, the loan turned into a launching pad for growth.
She used the funds to improve the infrastructure around her stables and to help payroll the five workers she employed over the summer. Aside from the loan, she also had a student working there through Canada Summer Jobs.
Finan’s horses are almost all over the age of 18, so having help in buying more horses this summer was also hugely helpful for her.
“Originally it was just what would have kept me in business, and then it turned into helping me grow,” she said. “I very much encourage businesses to seek help from the SADC.”
Amos was complimentary of the work the SADC does in the Pontiac, citing it as part of the region’s path to economic rejuvenation.
“With the closure of Smurfit Stone back in 2008, people’s frustration was real and it was understandable,” he said. “But we’ve made some major strides, and the SADC is a huge part of that. They’re helping tend the garden.”
Amos pointed to Finan’s success story at GELAM as an example of how the Pontiac can capitalize on the current circumstances.
“We have actually a very strategic position, in relation to a major urban centre. In a context for tourism, large-scale tourism is less appropriate, but outdoor, smaller-scale tourism—which is very much in line with what the Pontiac offers—that’s actually opening up major windows for opportunity.”
In addition to the 23 separate loans given out, an SADC press release stated that they have assisted 183 total Pontiac businesses in online learning and business development, highlighting that 81 of those business owners were female.
