DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

1. Description of the STA intervention

The STA intervention intends to provide its clients with management and technical assistance as well as financial support throughout the production and implementation of their business projects.

2. General purpose

The STA intervention further provides assistance to social aid beneficiaries, employment insurance participants, "unemployed and needy persons" and workers in precarious occupations, so that they may achieve autonomy in the market place, either by creating or by developing their business, or by becoming self-employed workers.

3. Specific purposes

The intervention specifically aims at:

• Supporting all admissible individuals who are capable of launching a viable business project;
• Promote job creation through new businesses;
• Offer the self-employed social aid beneficiaries the possibility of consolidating their business activities so as to achieve financial autonomy;
• Diversify the local economy within a context of a strategic economic development;
• Assist individuals in retrieving their financial autonomy.

ELIGIBILITY AS INDIVIDUAL

A. Persons eligible are:

• Employment assistance beneficiaries;
  
• Employment Insurance recipients: Unemployed persons for whom the benefit period has been established or has terminated within the last 36 months preceding the date of the request for assistance; persons for whom a maternity or parental benefit has been established within the last 60 months preceding the date of the request for assistance, and whom did not return to work to care for the newly born baby or the adopted child, and are trying to reenter the labor market;
  
• Unemployed and without social assistance: Persons that are not currently recipient of employment assistance or Insurance benefits, but who may become recipient of employment assistance in the short or middle term, or who must reenter the labor market to recover their financial autonomy;
  
• Workers in precarious occupations: The lack of job security may be defined as a job which runs a short term or middle term risk of disruption or termination, thus transmitting an acute feeling of economic insecurity to the person (s) involved. These types of occupations are specifically created to respond to circumstantial needs within an organization. This peculiarity is generally assessed and outlined in the business plan. The assessment of the wobbly status may also take the worker's income level into account.

B. Persons excluded are:

• Claimants of a landed immigrant status or persons holding a working permit only.

INCOME AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Participants may be eligible to both types of support: Income support and technical support.

Income support

For employment assistance and insurance benefits recipients, the income support represents a weekly allowance of $298, except for those employment insurance recipients who receive benefits for the entire eligible period and is in excess of the weekly allowance.

Technical support

Workers in tottering occupations are not eligible for income support but may benefit from the technical support, i.e.:

• Analysis of the project and the promoter's entrepreneurship potential;
• Individual support towards the preparation of the business plan;
• Follow-up on the first phases of the project start up;
• Supporting advice for the first months of operation and throughout the first year afterward;
• Appropriate training if required.

PROJECT ELIGIBILITY

Projects accepted are consistent with one of the priorities and must fulfill all other assessment criterions outlined hereunder.

Local priorities:

• Start up, repossession or acquisition (in the case of self-employment or employment assistance beneficiaries, who are undergoing a period of consolidation) of a business which offers a sufficient warranty of success for itself as well as for its competitors;
• Start up of an innovative project.

Other project assessment criterions:

The promoter or promoters must:

• Be eligible to the intervention according to the CLE standards;
• Demonstrate an entrepreneurial profile;
• Have experience or specific abilities in direct relationship to the project;
• Present a written outline of the business project, including their own résumés;
• Provide contribution to the financing of the project, equivalent to 15% of the allocation given to the participant. This contribution may be made in cash or in the form of goods such as furniture, tools, building, equipment, etc.);
• Require extra financial aid to set up the business project;
• Commits himself to work on the start up of the business as his main activity;
• Accept the supervision of the CLD throughout the set up and operation of his project;
• Be released from any bankruptcy ruling;
• Not carry any outstanding government liabilities or fail to comply with any repayment agreement;
• Not carry important or potential liabilities;
• Not be involved in a dispute or a litigation;
• Not have ceased the operation of a project set up in the past through Travail indépendant (T.I.) or Soutien à l'emploi autonome (S.E.A.) or ROFAINE ou Soutien au travail autonome.

Excluded projects:

• Businesses controlled by other parties such as franchises and pyramidal activities;
• Companies of controversial activities or connotation such as sexual, religious, political. For example: Dating agencies, war games, tarot, numerology, personal growth training, pawn shops etc.
• Companies subject only to financial consolidation, except in the case of employment assistance beneficiaries declaring self-employed revenues, who are developping the activity they already were in;
• Companies involved in saturated, non-priority and highly competitive activities.
• Companies on commission income only.

The party may present a business project in association with non eligible persons. In such case however, he must evidence his control of the business. For that purpose, his business plan must outline the ownership structure of the business, or the partnership agreement between the associates or the shareholders.

In the case of a project introduced by several eligible parties, the business responsibilities must be shared equally between the members.

This type of intervention shall not be used as a substitute to other start up support mechanism currently available in the region. Only those projects not otherwise feasible may be eligible to an STA intervention.

In order to be accepted by the selection committee, the business project involving seasonal activities shall demonstrate, as well as any other business project submitted, that it will ensure the financial well-being of his or their participants during the whole year, in order to prevent his or their returning to social security help.

Duration:

The maximum amount of time allotted through this agreement as part of the STA program is 52 weeks during which time a participant can receive financial aid and technical support in the aim of starting up an enterprise or autonomous job. However, the average length of agreements entered into under the measurements framework is usually 40 weeks.

The selection committee must, after having accepted the project at the end of the preparatory stage, inform the client of the duration of the financial aid granted by the committee. The entrepreneur must start his/her business and must transmit this event on to his/her CLD agent within the allotted time.

The allotted time agreed upon could be revised during the completion of the project.