No funding for students of Mississauga's Summer Company Program

With less than a month left in the summer, students of Mississauga's young entrepreneur program are still waiting for their promised grants

Mississauga.com
August 14, 2019
Sabrina Gamrot

Be your own boss this summer with “startup money” and “mentorship from local business leaders …” is how Mississauga’s Summer Company Program is advertised on their website.

Sounds too good to be true?

For the students of the 2019 program, the answer is unfortunately yes.

The Summer Company is a program that allows students from 18 to 29 to run their own business for the summer months.

Mississauga entrepreneur Samra Zafar receives Canadian Immigrant Top 25 Award
Paired with a grant of up to $3,000 and advice and workshops from local business owners, the program has been running across the province for years.

The program usually works like this: Once students have been accepted into the program, they can claim their initial $1,500 to cover startup fees. Once students have successfully completed the program (and followed all of the rules) they can claim the remainder of the grant.

But not for this year.

When students first were accepted into the program, they were told there wouldn’t be funds yet -- they would be coming “later.” However, later is yet to come.

It’s something that some students wish the program administrators would have been more “transparent” about.

Constantine Karolidis, 21, and Shan Shakeel, 15, are two of those students.

Karolidis runs his graphic design business Messenger Pigeon out of his garage and Shakeel runs a cellphone repair shop, Shak Electronics, in a storefront he rents. Karolidis has invested around $6,000 of his own money into his business, while Shakeel has used around $4,000 of his savings.

According to both Karolidis and Shakeel, the program administrators were quick to change the subject when the topic of funds was brought up by students. “They kept blaming it on the higher-ups and saying it was out of their control,” said Karolidis

But the mystery of the funding is hard to unravel.

The program is funded by the province and then delivered by the city through the Mississauga Business Enterprise Centre (MBEC). The funding comes directly from the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

When asked about the funding, the ministry declined to comment on why it wasn’t there. They also declined to comment on when (or if) the funding would come. They did offer this statement:

“The government recently conducted a comprehensive review of its business support programs to ensure that public resources are being used efficiently and effectively. Mississauga received confirmation of their funding in March and the funding will be provided as soon as the agreements are fully signed.”

When the MBEC was asked about the funding agreements, they had even less to say.

“Currently, we are still finalizing contract details with the province and have no further information at this time.”

And that’s where the trail goes cold. Neither the ministry nor the MBEC would comment further on the funding and declined requests to speak over the phone.

“The Province is committed to providing funding to MBEC. We have received the agreement in hand and are currently reviewing it. The completed agreement will also be brought forward to Council for approval in September," said a City of Mississauga spokesperson in an email.

To make matters worse, Karolidis has heard from other students that Summer Companies in York Region and Toronto have their funding in place, and that students have already received their grants.

Again, neither the ministry, the Region of York or the City of Toronto would comment on their funding status.

The Mississauga program continued to run their usual workshops as scheduled and although Karolidis and Shakeel found them to be beneficial, they wish they had other options.

Because participants of the program are barred from working jobs, the students have missed out on three months of money-making.

While the program is set to officially end on Labour Day, it seems unlikely that the funding will come in.

When asked if he would have joined the program knowing there wasn’t going to be a grant, Shakeel gave a simple and honest answer:

“No."