Employment Grants

employment

Youth Funding Opportunities 

The Student Work Placement Program (SWPP) gives post secondary students paid work related experience related to their field of study.

What is considered a student work placement?

  • Mentorship programs
  • Co-op placements
  • Practicums 
  • Internships

 

Amount of funding: Up to $7,500

 

Employer Eligibility  

  • A registered Canadian business or organization OR post-secondary education institution 
  • Not a federal or provincial government organization
  • Financially capable to hire a student for a part-time or full-time work hire

Career-Launcher Digital Internships

The Career-Launcher Digital Internships program are wage and training subsidies offered to employers who hire digital technology interns/grad students for up to 12 months in a full-time position.

Amount of Funding: Up to $32,000 in wage subsidies 

Eligibility 

Employer(s) must:

  • Have an established payroll system and be set up to receive payments by direct deposit, and have a process for supervising and mentoring interns
  • Be a Canadian for-profit or not-for-profit organization or subsidiary with 500 employees or less
  • Hire a new employee/grads

The co-operative education tax credit is a refundable tax credit available to employers who hire students enrolled in a co-operative education program at an Ontario university or college.

Amount of Funding: 

  • Corporations can claim 25% of eligible expenditures
  • Small businesses can claim 30% of eligible expenditures
  • The maximum credit for each work placement is $3,000

 

How to Claim the Tax Credit

  • Corporations can claim tax credit on Schedule 550 and file it with their T2 Corporation Income Tax Return
  • Unincorporated businesses can claim the credit on Form ON479, Ontario Credits, included in their personal income tax return 

 

Eligible Employers

  • All corporations or unincorporated business placements in Ontario 
  • Members of a partnership may share the CETC for each qualifying work placement 
  • The general partners of a limited partnership are entitled to share the credit

 

What is a Qualifying Work Placement

  • The work placement must involve a student who is enrolled at an eligible educational institution and performs employment duties for an eligible employer under a qualifying co-operative education program offered by their school

 

The Work Placement must meet the Following Conditions:

  • the placement has been developed or approved by the eligible educational institution 
  • the student must be engaged in productive work during the placement
  • the placement is not less than eight month or more than sixteen months for a qualifying internship program, and at least 10 weeks for all other qualifying co-operative education programs 
  • the student is paid for all work during the placement
  • the employer supervises and evaluates the student’s job performance during the placement 
  • the educational institution monitors the student’s progress during the placement

 

Eligible Expenditures

  • Salaries and wages including taxable benefits 
  • Fees paid or payable to an employment agency for the work placement for services of a student carried out primarily at an Ontario place of business

Canada Summer Jobs provides wage subsidies to employers from not-for-profit organizations, the public sector, and private sector organizations with 50 or fewer employees, to create quality summer work experiences for people aged 15 to 30. 

Amount of Funding

  • Public and private sector employees can receive grants up to 50% of employee minimum hourly rate
  • Nonprofits can receive grants up to 100% of minimum wage
  • $6,000 per hire

 

Who can apply?

  • Businesses, non-profits, and public sectors with 50 or fewer employees 
  • Positions must be full-time (30+ hours/week)

 

Eligible Expenditures

  • Providing relevant work experience for youth ages 15-30
  • Providing wages above minimum wage
  • Hiring a priority student
  • Addressing local priorities
canada summer jobs

The Youth Employment Program is designed to provide companies with funding to hire young Canadian post-secondary graduates.

Amount of Funding

  • $30,000 per graduate (up to two) for a period of 6 to 12 months 

 

Who can apply?

  • Incorporated and financially stable businesses
  • A Canadian business with under 500 employees
  • Willing to partner with NRC IRAP 
  • Responsible for finding graduates before applying

 

Eligible Activities

  • Research and development 
  • Market analysis for new technology based products
  • Business development related to science and technology activities 
  • Multimedia 
  • Improvement of customer services
  • Engineering 

Mitacs Accelerate is a research internship program that connects companies with over 50 research-based universities through graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Eligibility

  • For-profit corporations and eligible not-for-profit corporations, municipalities, and hospitals in Canada
  • For-profit businesses operating outside of Canada

 

Amount of Funding

  • Applicants may receive funds of up to 75% to a maximum of $15,000 per intern 

 

Eligible Activities

  • Internship costs for research and developing tools, models, technology, or solutions to support the host business’ challenges 

 

Benefits of the program 

  • Access academic expertise
  • Build a customized research plan with support from Mitacs representatives 
  • Augment your R&D budget
  • Get better leveraging for projects with three or more interns and six or more internships
  • Identify new markets, commercialize results, and assess potential employees 

Environmental Funding Opportunities 

Project Learning Tree Canada (PLT Canada) is a charity committed to fostering inclusive environmental education and growing a diverse green job workforce

Amount of Funding

  • Up to 50% wage match to employers hiring youth aged 15-30 into forest conservation, climate change, sustainability and parks jobs 

 

Who can apply?

  • Any organization that will offer work experience opportunities to students in the green jobs sector
  • The job must be a position within the scope of a Green Job: one that supports nature based solutions for a more sustainable planet, the duration of the work experience must be from 2-20 weeks, and the work experience must be in Canada
project learning tree

Career Focus Green Jobs is a wage subsidy program for employment opportunities that have a green mandate or any job where the employer has an environmental focus 

Amount of Funding

  • Up to $13,500 in wage subsidies over 6 months for recent graduates

 

Who can apply?

  • Businesses in the Biotech sector that have a green mandate and are hiring a co-op student role with an environmental focus
  • This program offers funding for co-op students and new graduates

The Sustainable Development Technology Fund helps achieve national environmental goals of improving water, soil and air quality, and reducing the effects of climate change. The fund supports a late stage development of pre-commercialization strategies of clean technologies.

Amount of Funding

  • Up to 40% of project costs to a maximum of 2 million to 4 million in non-repayable funding

 

Who can apply?

  • A Canadian company developing a new technology with significant environmental benefits 
  • Have a defined project and be looking to demonstrate a pre-commercial technology
  • Have a strong end-user, value proposition and be able to validate the market and commercialization potential of the technology 
  • Form a consortium that includes at least one other partner

General Employment Funding Opportunities 

The Canada-Ontario Job Grant is a funding program that offers training grants to employers. Companies can receive non-repayable funding from the government to purchase third-party business training programs.

Amount of Funding

  • Large Employers (100+ employees): up to 50% of eligible training expenses to a maximum $10,000 per trainee
  • Small Employers (<100 employees): up to 83% of eligible training expenses to a maximum $10,000 per trainee
  • Small Employers Hiring and Training Unemployed Individuals: up to 100% of eligible training costs to a maximum $15,000 per trainee 

 

Who can apply?

  • For-profit business, non-profit organization, employer consortium, and first Nations band council 

 

Employers must:

  • Have a license to operate in Ontario 
  • Apply for third-party training programs that are delivered in Ontario
  • Abide by the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Employment Standards Act
  • Possess Workplace Safety and Insurance Board or private workplace safety insurance coverage 
  • Maintain third-party liability insurance coverage

 

Eligible Activities

Ontario training grants will cover the following costs:

  • Third-party trainer fees
  • Tuition, student, and examination fees
  • Textbooks and course materials 
  • Training-related software

Ineligible Expenses 

  • In-house training programs 
  • Training programs performed outside of Ontario 

 

Applicants are most successful when applying for the following three training categories:

  1. Career or Development Training: Enhancing the skills, knowledge, and ability of employees to support career advancement 
  2. Maintenance and Refresher Skills Training: Updating and maintaining the skills, knowledge, and ability of specialists in an organization
  3. Essential Skills Training: Providing the skills needed for work, learning, and life. These are easily transferable skills employers can use to find a job and succeed in the workplace. 

 

What documentation is required?

  • COJG Employer/Consortium Application Form 
  • COJG Employer Registration for Consortium 
  • COJG Employer and Training Provider Attestation Forms 
  • COJG Participant Registration Form 
  • Placement Agreement 
  • Electronic Funds Transfer Form 

The Ontario Exporters Fund (OEF)

The Ontario Exporters Fund is a funding program designed to help small and medium-sized businesses hire an export manager or international business development manager. This program provides grants to fund a portion of the new hire’s salary.

How to qualify? (Business eligibility criteria) 

  • Maintain between 5 to 500 employees 
  • Be incorporated and have audited financial statements for a minimum of 2 years 
  • Have a total annual sales of $3 million to $20 million
  • Already be an exporter, within 10%-15% of total annual sales coming from export markets 
  • Have at least $2 million in commercial general liability insurance 
  • Be in an economic “priority sector”, including advanced manufacturing, aerospace, building products and construction, clean technology, exportable professional services… 

 

Applicants must also ensure that their upcoming new hire qualifies for program participation, which requires:

  • A minimum of 5 years of professional exporting experience
  • A minimum employment length of 24 continuous months 
  • Not being a current employee
  • Not being a family member of the company’s current management team 
  • A focus on export management 

 

The international business development plan should include:

  • An overview of the business’ current state
  • An assessment of international business opportunities 
  • Detailed assessments of targeted markets 
  • An international market expansion plan 
  • A plan to implement the international market development strategy 

 

Eligible Expenses 

  • Salary costs (up to 50%) for the new export manager or international business development manager 
SR & ED Tax credits

I hope you enjoy reading this informational post.

If you want my team (Gautam Shah) to help you get massive amounts of government funding, just book a call.