Federal Government

Refreshed on 2020-04-22

Type

Grant

What

$250 Mm to help innovative companies

This program is designed to assist early-stage and scaling companies that cannot access other federal supports such as the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) or the Business Credit Availability Program (BCAP).

Priority goes to highly qualified personnel (individual contributing in a significant way to the innovation that is building the business - technical employees as well as sales and marketing)

Program Period

Opens: April 22 at 7:00 AM

Closes: April 29th at 11:59 PM

Value & Structure

For each employee, the program will provide $847 a week for 12 weeks, totalling $10,164 per employee. Payment structure:

• First payment of 80% for a 12 week period in May to confirm that people are still on payroll (Targeting Payments to occur on May 11th)
• Second payment in June to get the last 20%.

Eligible Expenses

Employers benefiting from this measure will include corporations eligible for the small business deduction, as well as non-profit organizations and charities.

• All members of staff as of March 1st who will receive a T4/T4A at the end of the year are eligible to be supported by this program.
• If an employee is laid off then called back, they will be supported by this program if they were on payroll as of March 1st.
• Additional hires after March 1st will not be supported.
• IAP will only support people named on the payroll, not backfill hires
• The total envelope of support cannot exceed total payroll.

How to Access it

Application:

Home · NRC-CNRC

Link about program:

NRC IRAP Innovation Assistance Program (IAP)

Important Notes before applying

• The key metric for how much support a company will get will be The number of Highly Qualified Personnel (HQPs) on the payroll
• The funding will be available to current AND new IRAP clients
• NRC-IRAP will lean on the Industrial Technology Advisors (ITAs) in determining which companies will be helped
• Deadline for the program is April 27th
• You will be required to answer 8 merit-based questions, which will act as a ‘paper’ interview of the company. Acceptance will take into account the quality of tech and the position in the innovation space

Eligibility

This program (IAP) is a complement to the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS):

• You must attest that you have attempted to use CEWS and been denied.
• CEWS will have a tool to see quickly if companies are eligible to receive funding. Anyone who wants IAP should use this tool first, then use that for the attestation (no formal CEWS rejection is required).
• If you are eligible for CEWS now, you will not be eligible for IAP later. IAP is a one-time thing.

In order to be eligible for IAP you must meet the IRAP company eligibility definition:

• Be ineligible for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy
• Be an incorporated, profit-oriented small or medium-sized business in Canada
• Be a company with 500 or fewer full-time equivalent employees
• Plan to pursue growth and profit by developing and commercializing innovative, technology-driven new or improved products, services or processes in Canada
• Lack sufficient financial resources to sustain operations during the COVID-19 downturn period
• Have a Canada Revenue Agency business number
• Be incorporated by no later than March 1, 2020

Additional Notes

• There will be no matching fund requirements, this is a minimum payment philosophy equivalent to CEWS.IAP is independent from the classic IRAP programs.
• Companies can apply to both IRAP programs if eligible. However, all federal funding will impact the company's SR&ED claims. The NRC recommends that companies use accountants to determine which programs to apply to.
• Money in tranches - the NRC is are working on placing budget earlier in fiscal year, will run out of money
• The NRC is trying to push out as much of the $300M under classic IRAP given the downturn of the economy. The $250M under IAP will be paid out on a monthly basis now
• There will be no special consideration for medtech or any other special sectors.
• Products manufactured in Canada will not get priority treatment.
• Companies of 1 or 2 people will be eligible for support.
• Highly-qualified person - individual contributing in a significant way to the innovation that is building the business - technical employees as well as sales and marketing