Social Capital Partners and Ontario Government to begin consultations with Canadian financial institutions for a Community Loan Pilot Project

November 7, 2014| News release

TORONTO, Nov. 7, 2014 – Social Capital Partners is pleased to announce an innovative collaboration with the Government of Ontario designed to explore a novel social finance approach that provides employment opportunities for people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations.

In the coming weeks, consultations with Canadian financial institutions will explore ways to scale the Community Loans Pilot Project.

This approach is based on the past success of Social Capital Partner’s Community Employment Loan Program which has facilitated loans to business owners of franchises in more than 60 locations who have committed to hiring those at a disadvantage. The interest rates of the loans are directly linked to the desired social outcome: for every employee hired from a community agency partner, the interest rate on the loan decreases. Such financing attracts communityminded business owners who have entry level positions with the potential for career growth and advancement. It’s a win-win scenario: disadvantaged job seekers are offered opportunities for meaningful employment while small businesses gain access to attractive financing terms and motivated employees.

With support provided by the Government of Ontario, Social Capital Partners worked with Deloitte to complete a feasibility study of how a program like this could be scaled. The study concluded that by offering an interest rate incentive to small and medium sized enterprises that implement a community hiring program savings would be realized by the reduction of other government support costs.

The study concluded that this financing scheme is an untapped opportunity to provide job opportunities to disadvantaged groups. The study is available on the SCP website www.socialcapitalpartners.ca.

The government and Social Capital Partners will now begin consultations to refine the design with the goal of implementing a pilot to test the model in the near future.

“Ontario is pleased to work with Social Capital Partners to start consulting with Canada’s leading financial institutions to help scale up the Community Loans Pilot. This program is a great example of an innovative solution that improves employment opportunities for persons with disabilities and others facing employment barriers, and helps them become active participants in the workforce.”
– Brad Duguid, Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure

 

“We are excited to work with the Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure to take our existing Community Loan Program to the next level, working closely with both bank and community partners. We view this as an important step to expand the use of community employment practices by Canadian business owners, helping to facilitate employment access to countless job seekers who face added obstacles in finding work. We believe this is a prime example of how social finance can be leveraged to engage the private sector and generate win-win solutions.”
– Bill Young, Founder and President of Social Capital Partners

“We view this as an important step to expand the use of
community employment practices by Canadian business owners, helping to facilitate employment access to countless job seekers who face added obstacles in finding work. We believe this is a prime example of how social finance can be leveraged to engage the private sector and generate win-win solutions.”

Economic policy Labour & skills Leveraging capital Local economies Small business

Share with a friend

Related reading

BlogThe Ownership Solution

Elbows up: Keeping Canadian companies in Canadian hands | Policy Options

Blue Jays pride notwithstanding, many of Canada's most iconic companies and brands have been quietly but steadily purchased by foreign entities in recent years. As Danny Parys writes in Policy Options, policymakers should do more to keep Canadian companies in Canadian hands by providing more support to expand financing opportunities, expanding awareness of untraditional ownership models and beefing up Canada’s net-benefit review requirements. These quiet foreign sales not only lead to major frustrations for consumers, but workers also feel the impacts because, as corporate leadership moves further away from the community, so do quality and accountability.

BlogThe Ownership Solution
overhead shot of burnaby BC refinery

You can’t be sovereign if you don’t own anything

Gas station giant Parkland is already shedding Canadian employees in the wake of TX-based Sunoco’s recent takeover of the Canadian fuel chain, which owns 15% of our gas stations and a key refinery in Burnaby, B.C. These layoffs were a predictable outcome of Ottawa's decision not to flex its new regulatory muscle through the Canada Investment Act to quash foreign investment deals that pose an economic security threat. As SCP chair Jon Shell writes, there’s a real danger that the government will continue this sell-off of Canadian companies to foreign investors—and that this sell-off will be considered a “win” for the government’s economic growth strategy. This would be a mistake.

Blog
Busy downtown Canadian street corner

Reflections on Budget 2025: Economic growth alone won’t save us

Budget 2025 includes hopeful initiatives that will deliver real benefits to working Canadians at this time. In this reflection, SCP CEO Matthew Mendelsohn explains that, strategically, we really like the Budget’s focus on industrial strategy, some tentative steps on making more capital available to a wider diversity of Canadians and commitments to loosen the grip that our oligopolistic sectors have over our economy.  However, we are concerned by the lack of a strategic approach to providing more working people and young people a path to wealth, ownership and economic security. While the Budget responds to the wish list that corporate Canada has articulated for several years, there are no guarantees that they will indeed step up to invest—or that those investments will produce growth that benefits working people and communities.   

Skip to content