17 Prince Edward Island Businesses Share $6.9 Million in Tariff Relief, None of It to Be Repaid

Ottawa's tariff program just paid out in Prince Edward Island. On October 1, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency announced more than $6.9 million for 17 businesses and organizations across the Island under the Regional Tariff Response Initiative, and the backgrounder marks every award non-repayable. The awards run from $130,000 to $987,625. For an owner sizing up an application anywhere in Canada, the list shows what one award tends to be: well under $1 million.

Trout River's $987,625 is the biggest cheque

Minister Sean Fraser made the announcement at PEI Bag Co. in Central Bedeque, alongside Bobby Morrissey, the MP for Egmont. The company employs 65 Islanders and makes the bags that potatoes, flour and sugar ship in. It received $261,402 for new manufacturing equipment and digital technologies, per the backgrounder; the October 1 release rounds it to "more than $260,000".

The largest award went to Trout River Industries in Coleman. The backgrounder lists $987,625 for a dedicated material handling facility at its trailer plant, to help offset U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs. The smallest is $130,000, to Myers Welding in Tignish, for welding and fabrication equipment.

The 17 awards add up to $6,903,771

The backgrounder prints an amount beside each name. Added up, the 17 come to $6,903,771. Thirteen are under $500,000, and the one in the middle of the list is $354,342, to Livingston Steel in Charlottetown.

Nine of the 17 make food or drink: potatoes, seafood, beef, dairy, preserves and two breweries. Three more work in steel, a trailer maker, a steel fabricator and a welding shop. Somru BioScience in Charlottetown gets $747,500 for a robotic fill-finish system to cut its reliance on U.S. suppliers.

Every award sits under the program's $1 million line

The program's published terms set two kinds of money. Payroll support of up to $2 million is money you keep. Pivot project money you keep stops at $1 million and covers up to 50% of eligible costs. Above $1 million it becomes an interest-free repayable contribution at up to 75% of eligible costs.

Every PEI award is under $1 million. The backgrounder does not print project costs, so the owner's side of each project is not shown. The Toronto-area list of October 2, 31 recipients and nearly $26 million, printed project costs but did not say which cheques had to be repaid. This one says it on every row.

To apply you need an incorporated for-profit business in Atlantic Canada, at least $1 million in revenue in one of your last two fiscal years, and a tariff hit you can show. ACOA's FAQ, updated September 28, adds that restaurants and retailers are not eligible. Intake is open with no published close date.

"The $6.9 million in direct support we're announcing today will help PEI Bag Co. and 16 other businesses and organizations across the Island, with more to come across Atlantic Canada," Fraser said in the release. No program term changed with the announcement.