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Canada Digital Adoption Program

Eligibility Criteria:

Eligible businesses must be small and meet all the following criteria:

  • The business must be at least 51% owned and controlled by an Indigenous (First Nations, Métis or Inuit) person/persons;
  • A for-profit business (including for-profit social enterprises and cooperatives);
  • A registered or incorporated business;
  • A consumer-facing business;
  • A business that can be accessed online by customers or provides in person services to customers; and
  • A business with a minimum of one-employee, other than the business owner via attestation OR
  • had at least $30,000 in annual revenue in the most recent tax year or on track to earning the threshold in the next year via attestation.

*Please note

Recipients must commit to maintaining digital adoption strategies for 6 months (post grant). Additionally, any business that receives a grant will be required to consent to participating in follow-up surveys, having their information shared with the Government of Canada (ISED and Statistics Canada), and having the name of their business published as a recipient of funding.

Non-eligible businesses include:

  • Corporate chains, franchises, or registered charities;
  • Representatives of multi-level marketing companies; and/or
  • Real estate brokerages and sales agents.

Applicants are only permitted to submit one application under the program. The program may establish specific intake periods and will be limited to a predetermined number of applications. Each intake period will be open until the predetermined number of applications are received.

Please note: as funds are limited, applications will be reviewed on a first-come-first-serve basis. Once funds are exhausted, all other applications will not be processed. We reserve the right to close the application window when the application allotment is reached.

To submit an invoice of eligible costs and proof of payment to the Service Provider, receipts must be submitted within three (3) months of acceptance to the program, for grant disbursement.

Eligible Micro-Grant Costs include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Implementation or improvement of a digital e-commerce plan (i.e. website development, electronic payment);
  • Website search optimization;
  • Installation of an e-commerce platform (incl. subscription fees);
  • Back-office solutions to support e-commerce strategy;
  • Social media advertising;
  • Creation of customer databases

*Please Note:

We are respectfully requesting that businesses not allocate 100% of the grant amount to software such as QuickBooks or Office Suite that do not provide complete e-commerce solutions. If you purchase an item such as QuickBooks and the cost is $100.00, CDAP will only cover 20% or $20.00.

This applies for hardware and accompanying software. For example, if a small business buys a new e-commerce integrated point of sale (POS) system that costs $1,300 (including software), CDAP will cover 20% or $260.00.

Any software directly tied to the selling of goods and services will be eligible for 100% of the grant up to $2,400 such as:

  • Software to track and manage product inventory, as well as fulfill and ship orders
  • Software for product databases
  • Software to track sales, market to customers, offer discounts, maintain a loyalty program
  • Software to simplify marketing
  • Cyber Security software or certifications
  • Hiring a consultant/agency to execute Digital Marketing initiatives related to your e-commerce store
  • Costs related to the installation of an e-commerce platform (including subscription fees/costs)
  • Costs of back-office solutions to support an e-commerce strategy
  • Costs of social media advertising (Note: plan cannot be strictly social media advertising; it needs to tie into overall e-commerce implementation plan)
  • Development of a new e-commerce website
  • Upgrading existing e-commerce site for added functionality (i.e., new plugins, or features)
    • Note: redesign of an existing site is not eligible

Ineligible Micro-Grant costs include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Purchases made prior to grant approval
  • Office software (e.g., Microsoft Office, iWork, Google Workspace, etc.)
  • Renewal of digital services such as domain name, software subscription etc.
  • Signage and printing
  • Logo redesign and rebranding
  • Business Owner’s salary or current employee salary for executing the project
  • Costs of land, building or vehicle purchase
  • Non-arm’s length transaction made between CDAP SME recipients and their chosen service providers

*For a complete list of eligible and ineligible CDAP costs, please click the link below.

CDAP – Eligible & Ineligible Costs 2.0

Digital Transformation Planning

As part of the Grow Your Business Online Grant, each business has the opportunity to work with an E-commerce Advisor. These advisors work with businesses to provide hands-on guidance by reviewing digital assessments, consulting on grant spending plans, recommending digital marketing strategies, and helping to implement new technologies.