Milton MPP Parm Gill has provided an update on the Digital Main Street Program.
The program has helped nine local businesses in the last year receive grants for improving their online service. Other businesses also received help from hired local students to go digital and increase their ecommerce sales through the Digital Service Squad. A total of $40,632 in funding was provided by Ontario to help local Milton and area small businesses transform digitally.
MPP Gill says that the community really came through for local businesses in the last year. This was an opportunity for local businesses to make things easier for themselves, as well as their customers.
“Our community has come together in a big way during the pandemic to support our small businesses in town, but there’s more to do. The Digital Service Squads are helping our businesses transition online, allowing them to access new customers safely and reliably. By choosing to shop local by shopping local we are helping our businesses stay in business.”
Late last year, Executive Director Rachel Shuttleworth told myFM that COVID-19 really made this support necessary.
The funding for this project was first announced back in the summer of 2020 when FedDev Ontario and MEDJCT invested nearly $50 million to help Main Street businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises recover from the financial effects of COVID-19.
Shuttleworth says these shops need to find a way to keep up in the online market.
The squad will be in place until February, 2021.
For more information on the Downtown Milton BIA’s Digital Service Squad, click here.
