Get funding for your BIM

Yes, but they are not filed under “construction”. Support aimed at companies in the sector appears under digital transformation, productivity and training. Concretely: programs that fund rolling out BIM and digital site tools, Services Québec's training measure covering part of the cost of training crews, C3i for computer hardware and management software packages, and SR&ED for developing building systems. The programs that come up first in a search generally target building owners, not companies.

Yes, and it is the best-supported project in the sector in Quebec. Construction digital transformation programs fund the upfront diagnostic, the roll-out support and the training of crews. One important point: they fund the change of method, rarely the licence purchase as such. A file built around acquiring software is fragile; the same project presented as an overhaul of project coordination, with an implementation plan and measurable objectives, goes through far more easily.

Yes, provided the work addresses technological uncertainty and not the execution of a build. Constructing a building to the drawings, however complex, is not SR&ED. Developing an assembly system that does not exist, validating how a material behaves under undocumented conditions, developing a prefabrication method whose performance was not predictable — yes. Companies that prefabricate in a shop are by far the best placed, because their development work is concentrated, repeatable and documentable.

Mass timber construction projects fall under federal programs dedicated to materials and low-carbon construction, with envelopes well above Quebec's digitization support. They target demonstration projects: mass timber structures, hybrid systems, building solutions whose performance has to be documented. These programs run on calls for proposals, with limited filing windows — this is the sector where watching the dates matters most.

Yes. Services Québec's training measure covers a significant share of in-company training costs, including the trainer's fees and a portion of participants' wages during the training. It applies to technical skills as much as to mastering new digital tools. The application is filed before training begins, with the regional Services Québec office — not with the trainer, who is not a party to the application.

The timing of the filing, far ahead of eligibility. In construction, decisions are made fast: you sign with a supplier, you start the training, you launch the roll-out, and you look for funding afterwards. But an expense committed before filing is not reduced or debated: it is excluded. A purchase order, a deposit or a signed contract all constitute a commitment. The only exception is tax credits, which are claimed after the fact — but their documentation still has to exist at the time of the work.

No single list gives it, and searching the word “construction” is misleading: it mostly surfaces residential renovation programs aimed at owners, not at companies. There are thousands of business funding programs in Canada, spread across the federal government, the provinces, municipalities and sector bodies; the ones that actually fund a contractor are usually indexed under other words — productivity, digital transformation, innovative materials, workforce training, decarbonization. The right search therefore starts not from the sector, but from the nature of the project.