banner

Federal, Provincial and Municipal Business Support Initiatives Blizzard 2020

City of St. John’s

The City of St. John’s recognizes the challenges posed to many businesses throughout the City due to the recent state of emergency. As a result, the City is extending the deadline for both the January 2020 payment period for commercial billing and the commercial vacancy allowance claim period.

Commercial Business Tax
The January 31 payment deadline is being extended to February 28, 2020. Payments made during the extension period (February 1 to 28) will be applied to your account with a January 31 payment date thereby allowing businesses an extra 28 days to avoid interest they would have been otherwise charged on January 31. To take advantage of this extension, payments must be received by 4:30 p.m. on Friday. Feb. 28.

Vacancy Allowance Claims
In addition, the deadline for filing vacancy allowance claims is being extended. Claims for the third and fourth quarters of 2019 normally due January 31 will now be accepted up to and including February 14, 2020.

Note that commercial bills for the first quarter of 2020 will be mailed in early March.

For more information visit http://stjohns.ca/media-release/city-announces-two-business-support-initiatives

Provincial Government

Provincial Government Financial Assistance Package Released for Small Business – Department of Municipal Affairs & Environment – Emergency Services

For more information on this program please visit https://www.gov.nl.ca/fes/faq/emergencymanagement.html

To download the Small Business Application form click here: https://www.gov.nl.ca/fes/forms/ApplicationSmallBusiness.pdf

Federal Government

HST Extension for Business

The federal government has announced that affected businesses in St. John’s will get an extension on their HST remittance. There are no penalties for filing late up until February 10, 2020. This is for payment and filing of HST for Q4 . The new deadline is Feb. 10, 2020.

 

 

#LoveDowntown #Snowmageddon 2020 Winter Edition Contest January 25 to March 20, 2020

Downtown St. John’s Business Improvement Area (BIA) Association presents the #LoveDowntown #Snowmageddon2020 Contest.

Downtown St. John’s customers and lovers it’s easy to participate and support downtown businesses!

How to play:

  1. Take a picture while eating, shopping and loving downtown at a local Downtown St. John’s Business Improvement Area (BIA) business, event or attraction
  2. Share the picture on your social media (Twitter and/or Instagram) using the hashtag #LoveDowntown

*Please note, we are unable to see your social media posts if your user setting are set to Private. We are only able to see social media posts using the #lovedowntown when user settings are set to Public.

We’ll pick a winner every week from Jan 31 to March 20 for gift cards from various Downtown St. John’s businesses.

Contest runs Jan. 25 to – March 20, 2020.  Weekly prize will be drawn and announced on Twitter and Instagram each Friday – first contest draw Jan 31 for photos submitted Jan 25 to midnight Jan 30, 2020.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Twitter: @DowntownStJohns

IG: lovedowntownstjohns

Contest Details:

Each post will count as ONE entry for that week and one entry for the grand prize

There is no limit on the number of times you can enter

The weekly prize will be drawn and announced each Friday, January 31 to March 20.

Entries for each week will be collected from 12:01 am on Friday to 11:59 the following Thursday

Photos entered in the contest may be used by the Downtown St. John’s BIA Association in future marketing and promotional material

Contest Rules:

Your photo must be current – photos that are dated before the contest start date (January 25, 2020) will not qualify

This is a social media contest for Twitter and Instagram only

Posts that are disrespectful or contain offensive language will not qualify

Posts of photos that are not taken inside, outside or related to a Downtown St. John’s Business Improvement Area (BIA) business or activity within the BIA area will not qualify

 

#LoveDowntown

DTSJ - IG_Final

PSA – State of Emergency

PSA – City of St. John’s Thursday, January 23, 2020.

All businesses and other community organizations in St. John’s will be allowed to access their premises as of 6 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 24 for the purposes of PREPARING to reopen.

Businesses and organizations are reminded that they are not permitted to operate, or resume normal operations or to be open for clients/customers until the State of Emergency is lifted

Effective Friday, Jan. 24 at 6 a.m. all businesses and community organizations may:

The City of St. John’s hopes to be in a position to lift the State of Emergency on Saturday, Jan. 25; a decision on this will be announced on Friday.

Due to current snow volumes on Downtown streets, No Parking will be permitted on City streets until after the State of Emergency is lifted.
Please use off-street lots and parking garages. For more information on off-street parking visit https://www.downtownstjohns.com/live/downtown-parking/

This adjustment to the State of Emergency is mostly intended for the food and beverage industry to deal with food spoilage, ordering supplies, clearing snow from entrances/exits, etc. in an effort to help PREPARE to get up and running on Saturday, January 25, 2020 when the SOE is lifted. 

This adjustment to the SOE is NOT meant as a green light for people to go back to work and for businesses, offices, etc. to open.  Buildings are to remain closed but business or property owners can can send in a couple of essential employees to make sure the building’s/businesses systems are operating properly –  make sure servers are still on line, reboot systems, etc.  The City of St. John’s is still under a SOE and buildings should not open.

All streets within the Downtown St. John’s Business Improvement Area (BIA) district have been plowed and the City continues to improve vehicular access throughout the area. City sidewalk snow clearing equipment will be in the area later this evening and/or tomorrow to make a cut through the area along the sidewalks until a full and complete removal can be made.

Once the State of Emergency is lifted, employees and customers are encouraged to use off-street parking facilities to avoid traffic congestion and potential emergency vehicle access issues.  Parking is available at several off-street parking garages throughout the area. For a list of off-street parking lots and garage please visit https://www.downtownstjohns.com/live/downtown-parking/

For State of Emergency updates and other City of St. John’s notifications please subscribe to the City of St. John’s E-updates: http://www.stjohns.ca/st-john-s-e-updates