City of Vaughan

The City was awarded grant funding by the federal government under the My Main Street Local Business Accelerator program for two out of only 65 available My Main Street ambassador positions across the province.

The program supported new and existing small businesses located within the selected My Main Street areas with:

• Dedicated Main Street ambassadors – These individuals helped My Main Street businesses identifying applicable resources and funding.
• Training – Participating businesses had the opportunity to take part in different types of training provided by the My Main Street team and the City. Training ranges from business setup, finance, marketing and communications.
• Customized market research – Participating businesses had the opportunity to obtain market research particular to their business to help identify potential economic opportunities.
• Data analysis – A deep data dive into the main street community was provided to participating My Main Street businesses to understand important trends and non-repayable funding contributions.
• Funding – Ten My Main Street businesses received up to $10,000 in non-repayable contributions to support local businesses.

** Applications for market research reports and non-repayable funding contributions are now closed. **

Eligible Businesses

To be eligible for consideration, all businesses must meet the following criteria:

• Be physically located in a participating main street community. To find out if your business is part of the Main Street Area approved by the Federal Economic Development Agency, visit mymainstreet.ca/community-map  and select City of Vaughan under the Municipality drop-down menu.
• Be open to the public for walk in and onsite purchase of goods or services; or be ready to open at the time of funding (within COVID protocols).
• Be an independent local business with under 10 employees (25 if a restaurant).
• Be paying commercial property tax (commercially assessed) either directly or through commercial rent.
• Be a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, co-operative or social enterprise.
• Have a business bank account in the registered name of the business.
• Be owned by an Ontario resident, operating in Ontario.
• Business owner must be 18 years of age or older at the time of application and be a Canadian resident or permanent resident.
• Businesses with multiple locations or owners with multiple businesses are only eligible to submit one application.

*For businesses in other areas of Vaughan or who may not be eligible, our Economic Development team is here to provide advisory services and are available to help, please email ed@vaughan.ca for more information.