Question Period Note: FedNor Service Standards

• FedNor recognizes the significant challenges facing Northern Ontario small businesses and communities as a result of COVID-19, and on First Nations and rural areas in particular.
• The pandemic has significantly increased the demand for support from communities and businesses in the region.
• Staff are working diligently to process applications and deliver on new relief and recovery programs while continuing to offer a its regular programs.
• FedNor is working to streamline business processes to improve the current standard of providing a decision on applications within 80 working days of receipt of a fully completed application.

On August 12, 2021, FedNor was established as a standalone regional development agency (RDA) to enable it to better respond to the region’s economic development needs. As FedNor implements this transition, it is working to enhance all client service delivery by identifying opportunities to improve outward facing application tools and service standard goals, including the current standard of providing a decision on applications within eighty (80) working days of receipt of a fully completed application.

FedNor’s Regional Economic Growth through Innovation Program (REGI) helps support business scale-up, increase commercialization rates and enhance regional cluster development resulting in job creation in Northern Ontario. Through its Northern Ontario Development Program (NODP), FedNor works closely with and invests in communities to help them attract and retain investment and business, in addition to supporting efforts to diversify the regional workforce.

In response to the impacts of COVID19, Canada’s regional development agencies (RDAs) delivered emergency support through the $2 billion Regional Relief and Recovery Fund (RRRF) with unprecedented speed. In Northern Ontario, demand for the RRRF was strong. FedNor took swift action to deliver more than $100 million across Northern Ontario to more than 1200 businesses and organizations who needed it the most.
An internal analysis shows that FedNor has met its 80-day service standard for project decisions (from complete application to actual decision date) an average of:
• 71% for NODP
• 92% for REGI (including the RRRF, in which project decisions were on average processed in almost half of the 80-day service standard).

In addition to its regular programming, FedNor is now delivering four additional programs that will inject $83 million in new funding into the region over the next few years. These new programs were launched earlier this summer and include the Canada Community Revitalization Fund ($19.14 million over two years), Tourism Relief Fund ($25.3 million over two years), Jobs and Growth Fund ($26.6 million over three years) and the Aerospace Regional Recovery Initiative ($11.88 million over three years).

The ongoing pandemic has significantly increased the demand for support from communities and businesses in the region. Since 2020, FedNor has received more than double the number of yearly applications to its programs.

• In Northern Ontario, FedNor moved quickly to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to protect jobs and keep businesses afloat as they deal with the impact of COVID-19.
• With more than $123 million allocated for Northern Ontario through the COVID-19 Regional Relief and Recovery Fund (RRRF) and the Regional Air Transportation Initiative, FedNor has efficiently and effectively delivered support to key sectors, contributing to the economic well-being of the region.