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Small Business Grants Canada

What Canadian small business grants are available? What do you have to be or do to get a small business grant in Canada? Here's "the truth" about small business grants in Canada and listings of Canadian small business grants that your business may be eligible for, including government small business grants.
The Truth About Small Business Grants in Canada
What small business grants are available in Canada? And what do you have to be or do to get one? See if you fit the criteria for any of these Canadian small business grants.
5 Tips for Finding Small Business Grants in Canada
Small business grants that can help you start and grow your Canadian small business do exist. Use these five tips to make your search for small business grants in Canada more successful.
The Self-Employment Program: One of the Best Small Business Grants in Canada
If you're starting a business and looking for small business grants in Canada, you have to check out the federal government's Self-Employment Program. It's one of the best small business grants in Canada, providing business start up money and so much more for those who qualify. Find out what the Self-Employment Program offers and if it's for you in this article.
Aboriginal Business Canada Funding
This program to support Aboriginal small businesses may include financial support such as a non-repayable contribution and help accessing lenders as well as advice and help putting together a business plan. Applicants must be of aboriginal heritage and prepared to make a personal investment.
Agri-Opportunities Program
This program provides repayable and non-repayable contributions for the commercialization of new innovative value-added agricultural, agri-food and agri-based products, services and processes that are currently not commercially produced or available in Canada and that are ready to be introduced into the marketplace.
Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP)
Qualifying Canadian publishers may receive grant funding through one of these four funding initiatives designed "to ensure choice of and access to books written by Canadian authors that reflect Canada's cultural diversity and linguistic duality both in Canada and abroad".
Canada Music Fund
The Canada Music Fund offers a host of programs designed to support the recording industry. Some of this funding may be available in the form of small business grants.
CANtex (Canadian Textiles Program)
The Canadian Textiles Program provides funding for Canadian companies who manufacture textiles established prior to June 27, 2002; it provides both non-repayable and repayable contributions to fund eligible projects.
ecoENERGY Retrofit Incentive for Industry
Small business grants of up to 25 percent of project costs to a maximum of $50,000 per application and $250,000 per corporate entity to help small- and medium-sized industrial facilities implement energy-saving projects (Natural Resources Canada).
ecoENERGY Retrofit Incentive for Buildings
These small business grants will provide up to 25 percent of project costs or $50,000, whichever is less, for making energy-saving improvements to small or medium-sized commercial buildings, apartment buildings or commercial/residential buildings (Natural Resources Canada).
Grants to Small Business NWT
These small business grants are for small businesses, co-operatives, partnerships or sole proprietorships with less than $500,000 in gross sales. Artists and craft producers and licensed renewable resource harvesters can get a maximum $5000 grant (over the lifetime of any one business).
Job Creation Partnerships
Employers who participate in this HRSDC program may receive funding for overhead costs, and eligible expenses, and capital costs to a maximum of $1 million per year.
Opportunities Fund for Persons with Disabilities
Businesses (and other organizations) may apply for small business grants to fund projects that "assist persons with disabilities in preparing for, obtaining, and keeping employment or becoming self-employed". This government grant program is administered through HRSDC.
Self-Employment Program
This government grant program provides "unemployed EI eligible individuals with financial support, planning assistance and mentoring while they get their businesses up and running" (HRSDC Canada).
Small Business Grants for Aspiring Farmers (Quebec)
This small business grant is for aspiring farmers between 18 and 40 who reside in Quebec. The amount of the grant The amount of the grant awarded to a new business may vary from $20,000 to $40,000, depending on the recipient's level of training. (La Financière agricole du Québec).
Small Business Grants for R&D Activities
If your business needs money for research and development, NRC-IRAP (the National Research Council of Canada and Industry Canada) "provides non-repayable contributions to Canadian SMEs interested in growing by using technology to commercialize services, products and processes in Canadian and international markets." They also provide funding on a cost-shared basis.
Summer Company Program for Young Entrepreneurs
Students in Ontario aged 15 to 29 can receive small business grants ("awards") of up to $3000 and hands-on entrepreneur training and support to run their own summer businesses.
Targeted Wage Subsidies
An outline of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada's wage subsidies program, designed to encourage employers to hire people they normally wouldn't be able to hire. The program is dependent upon local needs.
Sustainable Development Technology Fund
The SD Tech Fund™ is aimed at supporting the late-stage development and pre-commercial demonstration of clean technology solutions. If you create such technology, you may be able to get small business grants to fund 33% to 50% of the costs involved in developing and testing your product.
Toronto Region Sustainability Program
This program for SME manufacturers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) provides one-stop pollution prevention technical assistance and a 50 percent cost-share funding incentive, up to a maximum of $5,000 (Ontario Centre for Environmental Technology Advancement).
Explore Small Business: Canada
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