Ontario to provide ice storm recovery funding for businesses, municipalities

The Ontario government says it’s introducing two financial assistance programs to help municipalities and businesses recover from a severe March ice storm.

The storm in late March left nearly 400,000 homes and businesses with power outages and damaged property as freezing rain covered parts of Ontario in layers of ice.

The province says it will launch two one-time financial assistance programs to help with ice storm recovery, including one to help municipalities pay for emergency response and cleanup costs such as clearing fallen trees.

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The other program will provide up to $5 million for small businesses, small farms and not-for-profit organizations to pay for storm-related cleanup and essential repairs not covered by private insurance.

The province did not specify how much money it has set aside for the programs, but said final amounts for business assistance will be based on the number of applicants and eligible costs, while municipal funding will be based on the eligible emergency response and recovery costs.

The province says eligible businesses and municipalities will have until Oct. 31 to apply for the funding.