Ontario Small Business Grant for all driving instructors affected by the pandemic

Ontario Small Business Grant for all driving instructors affected by the pandemic

Started
May 3, 2021
Petition to
Doug Ford and
Signatures: 538Next Goal: 1,000
Support now

Why this petition matters

Started by ADSIO

This is to bring to your kind notice that almost all Driving Instructors licensed by
Ministry of Transportation of Ontario and working as self-employed are left out of
Ontario Small Business Support Grant. Applications of driving instructors are being denied on one pretext with the status of the application on the website showing “Not Eligible” and many had received no email or letter indicating the reason for non-eligibility. Operators of Call center for Ontario Small Business Support Grant are showing their inability to tell the reason for “Non Eligibility”  and keep asking to wait for the email.
1) One of the reasons due to which Ontario Small Business Support Grant
applications for Driving Instructors were rejected is that they didn’t
have a separate business bank account for their business.
This is to bring to your notice that maintaining a separate bank account is not
mandatory if an individual is working as Sole-Proprietor under their own legal name.
Maintaining a separate bank account for accounts payable is mandatory only if
an individual is working as Sole-Proprietor and also registered a business with a
name other than his own legal name. 

Please refer to the definition of Sole-Proprietorship by the government of Canada.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-gency/services/tax/businesses/smallbusinesses
self-employed-income/setting-your-business/sole-proprietorship.html

A sole proprietorship is an unincorporated business that is owned by one individual. It is the simplest kind of business structure. The owner of a sole proprietorship has sole responsibility for making decisions, receives all the profits, claims all losses, and does not have separate legal status from the business. If you are a sole proprietor, you also assume all the risks of the business. The risks extend even to your personal property and assets. If you are a sole proprietor; you pay personal income tax on the net income generated by your business.
You may choose to register a business name or operate under your own name or both. If you operate as an individual, just bill your customers or clients in your own name. If you operate under a registered business name, bill your clients and customers in the business's name. If your business has a name other than your own, you'll need a separate bank account to process cheques payable to your business.
This is to bring to your kind notice that many applications for Ontario Small
Business Support Grant of driving instructors working under sole-proprietorship
under their own name were rejected due to the fact that they do not have
separate bank account for business as many of them have a joint account with
their spouse/family members. This is completely unfair and opposite to the
definition of Sole proprietorship by the Government of Canada.

2) Another common reason given for ‘Non-Eligibility’ is  The type of business you own is not part of the list of eligible businesses for this grant Whereas the ‘Driving Instructions’ is clearly mentioned in the ‘list of eligible businesses’. Moreover, some driving instructors have found to be eligible and received the grant. Please let us know how can some driving instructors are found to be in the list of eligible businesses while others are not. We also bring to your kind notice that driving instructors are in dire financial crisis as they are unable to work, especially those living in the prolonged grey zone areas like Toronto and PEEL, since restrictions are imposed by the government on in-person driving instructions.
We appreciate it if you look into the matter and use your good offices to get
accepted all the rejected applications of grant for all driving instructors who are
licensed by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario and working as sole-proprietor
under their own legal name.

Support now
Signatures: 538Next Goal: 1,000
Support now