Two Bedford, N.S. businesses that suffered damage earlier this year during a historic flood were surprised to learn that a $2,500 provincial grant they applied for doesn’t actually exist.
The businesses received an email, informing them the application was a “test,” which was inadvertently posted on the province’s website.
“I kind of thought it was a joke to be honest with you. I was, is this like a scam email?” said John Connors, the owner of East Coast Kicks.
Connors said the shoe store, located in the Bedford Place Mall was heavily damaged during the July floods, with about three to five inches of water accumulating on the floor.
He had to re-locate elsewhere in the mall while repairs were made, and did everything from meeting customers in the parking lot to selling shoes online.
He officially reopened Nov. 4, and was hoping the provincial grant would help him — albeit not a lot — with his $25,000 insurance deductible.
“I saw it. I filled it out. Everything like a normal grant, just like the one with the storm last winter there,” he said.
He submitted the application in September but was shocked when he received the update.
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“I got an email two or three days ago pretty much saying that this wasn’t supposed to be seen. It was something that they were working on beforehand and that pretty much, ‘Sorry for your inconvenience,'” he said.
The email explained that the grant was part of a draft program that the province was working on and claimed it was a “test application” that was accidentally posted online and accessible through a Google search.
The email stated “we apologize for the error and inconvenience.”
Connors said he has questions about why the grant was up on the website for months, if the province had no intentions of following through on it.
He said he questions what supports are actually available if this particular grant doesn’t exist.
Pro Tailors, another business at the Bedford Place Mall, also applied for the grant and received the same email.
“We were kind of surprised. It would be like someone bringing clothing into us to get altered and us taking it. And then the customer comes back we’re like, ‘Yeah, sorry, we actually didn’t want to do this,'” said Lyndsay Ambler, an employee of the store. “It just doesn’t seem to make sense.”
Minister of Economic Development Susan Corkum-Greek told reporters Thursday that the department was assessing options after the floods, and was considering a potential grant program.
“But at the very same time, concurrent to that work, government was assessing the damage, the impact and the need,” she said. “And it was that process that determined that the best support to to reflect the impacts that businesses had from that event was through the disaster assistance program, offering assistance tied to uninsurable losses up to $200,000.”
She said that a web page was created internally and “clearly an error took place” and the page remained active, even after they had decided not go forward with the grant.
She said 11 businesses submitted applications.
“It reflects an error and a very, very unfortunate error, which is why departmental staff, as soon as we did learn of this, have reached out to all of those businesses,” she said “We are committed to working with those businesses to look at where there are programs that may offer them support.”
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