$1.7 M for social economy enterprises

PME MTL, a support network for businesses in Ville de Montréal, announced that social economy enterprises will now have access to an extra $1.7 M through the auspices of the Fonds de développement de l’économie sociale (FDÉS – social economy development fund). In its Economic recovery plan – A Boost for the City: Acting Now – Montréal has implemented extraordinary measures to support businesses. As of today, the City is increasing its support for social economy enterprises, a sector that has been especially hard hit by the current crisis, enhancing the amount of financing available through the FDÉS, which is administered by PME MTL.

According to Luc Rabouin, Ville de Montréal Executive Committee member in charge of economic development: “Social economy enterprises are among the pillars of the economic fabric of Montréal. Unfortunately, many of them have been dealt a major blow by COVID-19. Our decision to enhance the Fonds de développement de l’économie sociale (FDÉS) will give hard-hit collective enterprises access to adequate financial means that will enable them to safeguard their operations. This $1.7 M increase can also be used to launch innovative business projects that meet that challenges and needs brought about by the pandemic.”

The Executive Directors of the six PME MTL service hubs (Annie Bourgoin, Marie-Claude Dauray, Jean François Lalonde, Christian Perron, Marc-André Perron and Nicolas Roy) affirm:

Within the context of this pandemic, the social economy has been identified as one of our top priorities because of the extreme resilience of its enterprises, and also in light of their dual economic and social impact on the City.

This extra budgetary envelope will serve to support the development of approximately 60 social economy enterprises and projects, from the pre-launch phase to the growth phase, and all the way to the consolidation phase, in the form of financial assistance of between $5,000 and $50,000. 

PME MTL, a springboard for the social economy in Montréal

Over the past few years, we have witnessed a veritable explosion of entrepreneurial social economy projects in Québec. In fact, in 2016, the Greater Montréal Areas boasted 2,780 social economy enterprises (NPOs and cooperatives) supporting 67,680 jobs and generating $11.7 B in revenue¹. 

In 2019, PME MTL has provided support to 520 social economy enterprises. Thanks to grants totalling $2,1 M from the Fonds de développement de l’économie sociale (FDÉS) and the participation of numerous financial partners, PME MTL has been able to act as a financial lever for a large number of social economy enterprises within its territory. 

The six PME MTL Executive Directors are convinced that “providing coaching and funding for collective projects with a social mission is crucial to ensuring their continued existence and the viability of their operations, and even more so within the context of this health crisis. Social economy enterprises are vital to our economic recovery, because the main reasons for their existence are to meet the social, economic and environmental needs of their members, and especially to provide local and essential services.”

Among the many businesses that have received support from PME MTL during the pandemic, and that have made a real difference, is La Cantine pour tous. In fact, four of the six PME MTL service hubs have worked with La Cantine pour tous to enable it to continue its operations and provide it with a unique online platform for directing orders from users for hot meals to their local collective kitchen. This service has proven to be essential for vulnerable individuals and those with reduced mobility.

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Click here to find all the details about the FDÉS – social economy development fund.

^[1]Institut de la statistique du Québec, 2019