Grants for Canadian SMEs
A grant is public funding, usually non-repayable, awarded to a business for a specific project. In Canada, more than 5,000 federal, provincial and municipal programs fund hiring, equipment, R&D, exporting and digital transformation. Hubvention identifies the ones your SME qualifies for, builds the applications and files them in the right order.
- Production equipment purchase
- Robotizing a line
- ERP or MES rollout
- Cybersecurity project
- Hiring and training
- New product development
- Testing and prototypes
- Certification for a new market
- Trade show abroad
- Heat recovery
- Fleet electrification
- Plant expansion
Planning your grants before committing expenses
Almost every Canadian grant program requires the application to be filed before work begins: a cost committed before approval is nearly always ruled ineligible. Add to that envelopes that close the moment they run dry, intake windows only a few weeks long, and review times of two to six months. Planning twelve months ahead means choosing your program and your amount, instead of being dictated to by the funders' calendar.
- 01 · Timing
File before you spend
Equipment ordered, staff hired or a contract signed before your application is acknowledged: the cost falls outside the eligible scope, with no appeal.
- 02 · Envelopes
First come, first served
Several programs close mid-year once the budget is exhausted, regardless of the deadline officially announced.
- 03 · Lead time
Two to six months of review
One to two quarters pass between filing and the first instalment. Your cash-flow plan has to absorb that gap.
- 04 · Stacking
Stack without breaching caps
Every program sets a stacking limit. The order in which applications are filed determines the total you actually collect.
Most frequently used programs
These programs account for most of the funding obtained by our clients. Each has its own criteria, deadlines and amounts.
- 01Federal Government
SR&ED
Refundable tax credit on R&D expenses — salaries, subcontracting, materials. Canada's most powerful fiscal lever for innovation.64%of eligible expenses recoverable - 02Government of Quebec
ESSOR
Funding for modernization, expansion or deployment projects for manufacturing and service businesses in Quebec.50%of eligible costs (loan or grant) - 03National Research Council
NRC-IRAP
Industrial Research Assistance Program — funding and technical advisory for innovative SMEs developing new technologies.$75Kon average per approved project - 04Federal Government
CanExport SME
Non-repayable funding for export activities — market prospecting, certification, product adaptation for foreign markets.50%of eligible expenses (max $50K) - 05Government of Quebec
Commercialization Support (PSCE)
Financial support for commercialization, market development and export projects for Quebec-based businesses.$50Kmaximum per eligible project - 06Canada Economic Development
RTRI
Regional Tariff Response Initiative — non-repayable support for manufacturing SMEs hit by tariffs: productivity, automation, market diversification.$1Mmaximum non-repayable per project
Not sure which one applies to you?
Estimate my grantsGrants by industry and by project
Two ways to find the programs that apply to your business.
Frequently asked questions
Before the cost is committed, with no useful exception. The vast majority of Canadian programs — federal and provincial alike — reject costs incurred before the application is acknowledged. Then allow two to six months of review before the first instalment is paid. In practice: for a project starting in January, the file is prepared the previous summer; for a program with a closed envelope, it is filed the day the intake window opens, not as the deadline approaches.
There are more than 5,000 public funding programs in Canada, across three levels: federal (SR&ED, NRC-IRAP, CanExport, RTRI), provincial (ESSOR and PSCE in Quebec, equivalents in Ontario and Alberta) and municipal. They take the form of refundable tax credits, non-repayable grants or interest-free loans. The right lever depends on your sector, your province, your revenue, your headcount and the nature of the project — rarely on just one of those criteria.
Yes, but every program sets a stacking limit, expressed as a percentage of the total project cost. Exceeding that limit reduces the funding, and sometimes triggers repayment. Filing order matters as much as program selection: an application filed in the wrong order can forfeit access to a second lever, while the very same combination, filed in the right order, remains eligible.
A grant is a non-repayable amount awarded on application, for a specific project, at the discretion of the body that reviews it. A tax credit is claimed in the tax return: if the expenses qualify, it is owed, and a refundable credit is paid even when the company has no tax to pay. A loan, sometimes interest-free or partly forgivable, is repaid. A single project can combine all three, within each program's stacking limits.
Hubvention starts from the company's actual profile — sector, province, revenue, headcount, projects underway and planned — and matches it against every active federal, provincial and municipal program. The deliverable is not a list of possible programs but a calendar: which program to file, for how much, on what date, and in what order to stay within stacking limits. Hubvention then runs the mandate end to end — writing the file, filing it, defending it with the funding body, then handling reporting and claim submissions once the funding is granted.