Written by Maryam Ajorloo, CPA · Reviewed by Behdad Karimi Dermeni, CPA
Ontario tells you its opportunity is "yours to discover" and that the province is "a place to grow." Their words, not mine. What the slogans leave out is which small business grants in Ontario are actually open this month, which ones quietly ended two years ago, and which ones want 10 employees and half a million dollars of project spending before anyone reads your application. Finding that out is what costs you a weekend.
So this guide does it differently. Every program below has been checked against its own official page, and each one comes with its current intake status and an honest note about who it is really for.
The short version: Ontario's most useful small business grant is Starter Company Plus, worth up to $5,000 and delivered through local Small Business Enterprise Centres. Most other provincial funding goes to staff training through the Canada-Ontario Job Grant, to manufacturers, or to tech startups with intellectual property. Nearly every program asks you to put in some of your own money first.
Almost all of those applications will ask for financial statements, which is a much shorter job when your books are already up to date rather than reconstructed in a panic. That is what ReInvestWealth's AI Bookkeeper is for.
A Grant Is Matched Money, Not Free Money
Here is the one rule that explains most of what follows: a grant is matched money, not free money. Before you look at what a program pays out, work out what it asks you to put in.
Starter Company Plus wants 25% of the grant amount contributed before it approves you. The Canada-Ontario Job Grant covers most of a small employer's training bill, but not all of it. The regional development funds expect a project worth at least $500,000, and they mostly lend rather than give. If you cannot fund your side of the deal, the program is not money you can use, however good it looks in a list of 25.
Two more things worth knowing before you start filling in forms. Grant money usually arrives as a reimbursement, so you spend first and claim after. And most of it counts as income at tax time, which surprises people every spring. More on that below.
Provincial Small Business Grants in Ontario
It is genuinely hard to find out what the province offers, which is why so many Ontario owners assume there is nothing there. Federal grants offered by the Government of Canada aren't the only programs that small business owners should look to in order to seek financial support. The Government of Ontario also provides capital to startups, and several cities add their own. Other provinces run their own programs on the same model. If your business also operates out west, see our guide to small business grants in Alberta.
Below are the provincial programs currently running, with what each one pays and who it is genuinely open to.
Starter Company Plus: up to $5,000
This is the closest thing Ontario has to a general small business grant, and it is the one most readers of this page should look at first. It is funded by the Province of Ontario and delivered locally by Small Business Enterprise Centres, so you apply to your city's centre rather than to a provincial portal.
What you get: up to $5,000 on successful completion of the program requirements, plus one-on-one advisor support, a mentor, and access to workshops.
What you have to contribute: proof of a contribution worth 25% of the grant, up to $1,250. It can be cash or an approved in-kind contribution at fair market value, which means equipment you genuinely need to run the business counts (a photographer's camera body and lenses, a painter's scaffolding).
Who qualifies: you need to be 18 or older, an Ontario resident, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and not attending school full time. The business has to be registered, hold a commercial bank account, and be starting, expanding, or being purchased. Centres generally want to see a business that has been operating between six months and five years, and a commitment to run it full time.
Intake status: open, but the dates are set locally, so they differ from city to city. Most centres run one or two cohorts a year, and most require you to attend an orientation session before the application deadline. The Brampton Entrepreneur Centre page is a good example of how a centre publishes its calendar. Check your own centre rather than assuming another city's dates apply to you.
Summer Company: $3,000 for student founders
If you are between 15 and 29, in school, and returning to school afterwards, Summer Company pays $3,000 to run your own business over the summer: $1,500 up front and $1,500 once you finish the program requirements. You apply through a Small Business Enterprise Centre, and you have to live in Ontario and be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.
Running a business for a summer teaches sales, marketing, bookkeeping and customer relationships faster than any job with a name tag, and the $3,000 makes the difference between an idea and a real trial run.
Intake status: runs on an annual spring cycle, with the general application deadline usually falling in mid-May. Miss it and the next chance is the following spring, so the useful move is a reminder in early spring rather than a hopeful click in July.
The Canada-Ontario Job Grant: up to $10,000 per trainee
The Canada-Ontario Job Grant is the most overlooked program on this page, and for a small employer it is also the most generous. It pays for training your staff rather than for equipment or marketing, which is why grant listicles tend to skip it.
What you get: eligible training costs up to a maximum of $10,000 per trainee.
What you have to contribute: if you have fewer than 100 employees, one sixth of the training cost. Employers with 100 or more pay half. If you are training and hiring someone who is currently unemployed, funding rises to as much as $15,000 per trainee with no minimum employer contribution at all.
That last detail is worth reading twice. A small business that hires an unemployed worker and puts them through training can have the training funded entirely.
The Skills Development Fund
The Skills Development Fund funds larger projects that tackle hiring, training and retention. It runs in rounds, and eligible applicants include Ontario employers, industry and employer associations, non-profits, municipalities and apprenticeship training delivery agents. The province has committed $1.4 billion across the Training Stream's first five rounds.
Intake status: the Training Stream runs in rounds rather than continuously, so it is shut between them more often than it is open. The Capital Stream, which funds training facilities and equipment, accepts applications on a continuous basis.
In practice, a business with a handful of staff is better served by the Canada-Ontario Job Grant above. The Skills Development Fund suits associations and employers running a training project at scale.
Southwestern and Eastern Ontario Development Funds
These two regional programs, the Southwestern Ontario Development Fund and the Eastern Ontario Development Fund, appear on every Ontario grant list, usually with a headline figure of $500,000 and no mention of what it takes to get there. Here is the part that gets left out.
To apply to the business stream you need at least three years of financial statements, at least 10 employees (5 in rural Ontario), a plan to create at least 5 new jobs (or a 30% increase if you have fewer than 15 employees), and a project worth at least $500,000 (or $200,000 in rural Ontario). Support usually arrives as a loan of up to 15% of the project to a maximum of $5 million, interest free during the project period, with up to 30% forgivable to a maximum of $500,000 if you hit your targets. Outright grants exist only in specific circumstances.
There is also a community economic development stream, which covers up to 50% of eligible project costs to a maximum of $1.5 million, but that one is aimed at municipalities and not-for-profits.
Intake status: applications run on an ongoing basis across four intake periods a year, and decisions typically follow about three months after an intake closes. Check the fund's own page for the window that is currently open.
Who it is really for: an established manufacturer or a growing employer, not a consultancy of three people. Worth knowing about, not worth your Saturday if you have five employees and no $500,000 project.
The Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Competitiveness Stream
The AMIC stream supports small and medium-sized manufacturers across Ontario with capital equipment, technology adoption and skills development. It runs two intake periods a year and sits alongside the regional funds on the province's funding opportunities page.
If you run a service business, this one is not for you, and that is worth saying plainly rather than padding a list with it.
Ontario Centre of Innovation: Ready 4 Market
You will still see this program written up as the "Ontario Centres of Excellence Market Readiness Fund." That name is out of date twice over. Ontario Centres of Excellence was renamed the Ontario Centre of Innovation, and the fund is now called Ready 4 Market.
The more important correction is that it is not a grant. Ready 4 Market is a pre-seed co-investment fund: it invests up to $250,000 alongside angel and other private investors, in rounds that typically total between $500,000 and $2 million. Companies need to be incorporated for no more than five years with principal operations in Ontario, and to have raised under $1 million in third-party capital to qualify for a first investment.
It is also fiercely competitive. Hundreds of companies are considered each year and roughly 20 investments close. If you are an Ontario tech startup with defensible intellectual property and an investor already at the table, it belongs on your list. If you are looking for money you do not have to give equity for, it does not.
Every one of those programs eventually asks the same question: what did your business actually earn and spend? This is exactly what ReInvestWealth's AI Bookkeeper handles for you, so answering takes a download rather than a research project. See how it works.
Ontario Programs That Have Closed or Are Between Intakes
This is the section other pages leave out, and it is the reason grant lists waste people's time. Several widely recommended Ontario programs no longer exist, and they are still being published as though they do, on pages updated this year.
Digital Main Street Digital Transformation Grant ($2,500). Ended March 31, 2024. The application portal is closed, and no replacement has been announced. The digital assessment and the online training modules are still free to use, which is genuinely worth an afternoon, but the money is gone.
Canada Digital Adoption Program and Grow Your Business Online ($2,400). The Grow Your Business Online stream closed on September 30, 2024 and the wider program ended on March 31, 2025. It was federal rather than provincial, but it appears on so many Ontario lists that it needs saying here too.
Summer Company, between intakes. The program is alive and well, but it opens once a year and its application window closes in mid-May, so for most of the year it is shut. Worth a spring reminder, not a summer application.
Skills Development Fund Training Stream, current round. Closed, with applicants being notified. Watch for the next round rather than starting an application now.
The habit worth building: before you spend an evening on any grant, open the program's own official page and look for a live intake date. A third-party list, this one included, is a starting point and not a substitute.
Where to Apply Locally (and Which City Grants Are Not for Businesses)
Ontario's municipal front door is the Small Business Enterprise Centre network. There are centres across the province, they are the delivery channel for Starter Company Plus and Summer Company, and their advisory help is free. If you only do one thing after reading this page, find your nearest centre and book a conversation.
Now for a correction that matters, because it appears on our own older version of this page as well as on plenty of others. Several city programs that get filed under "small business grants" are not open to businesses at all:
Mississauga's grant has been renamed the Small Projects Grant and offers up to $2,500. It is only open to registered not-for-profits, community groups and Business Improvement Areas, and applicants must be in good standing with the city's Community Group Registry.
London's Community Grants Program funds local not-for-profit organizations for capital renovations and facility or land purchases. Its application round runs annually and closes in March.
Ottawa's BIA Formation and Expansion Grant goes to business *groups* forming or expanding a Business Improvement Area, not to individual businesses, and it now covers up to 50% of project costs to a maximum of $15,000.
None of those are bad programs. They are simply for community organizations and business associations, and a sole proprietor reading a list of "Ontario small business grants" should not have to discover that on page four of an application.
For genuine municipal business support, check your own city or township's economic development page, since some run seasonal storefront, signage or digital programs that never make it onto provincial lists. And check whether your city delivers Starter Company Plus, because most of the larger ones do.
How to Apply for an Ontario Small Business Grant
Every application on this page follows roughly the same five steps. Getting them in the right order is most of the work.
Shortlist only the programs you actually qualify for. Read the eligibility page before the funding amount. Ten minutes here saves the weekend you would otherwise spend on a regional development fund that needs 10 employees.
Check the deadline, and think about the order you apply in. It is always better to finish an application before the deadline than on it, so you have time to edit and to absorb the inevitable surprise. Some programs also disqualify applicants who have already received other funding, so a small grant taken early can cost you a larger one later. Some accept applications on a rolling basis, in which case early is simply better.
Confirm eligibility properly, including the preferred criteria. Many programs list requirements and then a set of preferences. If you spot a program a year out, you can shape a business plan or start an initiative that meets the preferred criteria and improves your odds before you ever apply.
Gather what every application asks for. Expect to provide your legal business name, operating name, Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) business number, a short description of the business, and banking details (account holder name, account number, financial institution, branch or transit number). If you do not have a business number yet, you can register for one with the CRA through Business Registration Online, which since November 3, 2025 is the way new business numbers are set up and which needs a CRA account first. You will also be asked for recent financial statements, and note that many programs will only accept a business bank account, so open one first if you have not already.
Submit, then wait, and plan to re-apply. The grantor comes back to you with a decision or a request for more information, and the wait can be long: the regional development funds post decisions roughly three months after their deadline. For programs offered on a cycle, re-applying is normal and much faster the second time, since you can reuse and update what you already wrote. That alone is a good reason to favour programs that run every year.
Are Ontario Small Business Grants Taxable?
Usually yes, and this is the question we get asked most once the money actually lands. Government assistance is not a gift from the tax system's point of view, so how you report it depends on what it paid for.
If the grant reimbursed a specific expense, reduce that expense by the amount you received rather than reporting the grant separately. Your deduction shrinks, which is the same thing as the grant being taxed, just recorded in a tidier place.
If it helped you buy a depreciable asset, subtract it from that asset's capital cost. Your capital cost allowance is then calculated on the lower amount.
If it does not attach to either, it is income. A sole proprietor reports it as other income at line 8230 in Part 3C of the T2125. A corporation reports it on its T2.
For an Ontario corporation, that income lands at the combined federal and provincial small business rate, which just got cheaper: Ontario cut its lower rate from 3.2% to 2.2% effective July 1, 2026, taking the combined rate to about 11.2% on the first $500,000 of active business income for a Canadian-controlled private corporation. If your tax year straddles July 1, 2026, the rate is prorated across the two periods. Not nothing, but a long way from the number people fear when they hear "taxable."
One practical move: if a grant is funding spending you were going to do anyway, try to have the spending and the grant fall in the same fiscal year so the deduction and the income offset each other. Your accountant can tell you whether that works for your year-end. For the federal side of this, including tax credits, see our guide to small business tax credits and grants in Canada.
Get Your Books Ready Before You Apply
Grant applications are, underneath the branding, a request to see your numbers. The applications that stall are almost never the ones with a weak business; they are the ones where the owner needed three weeks to produce a statement.
Three habits make the difference:
Keep a separate business bank account and use it for everything. Most programs require one, and it makes every statement you produce afterwards defensible.
Capture receipts as they happen, not at year-end. Forward them to Smart Shoebox, your receipt inbox, and they get read and matched to the right transaction automatically.
Be able to produce a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet on demand. Financial Reports generates both from your categorized transactions, so an application request becomes a download rather than a project.
One thing we hear often from customers is worth flagging if you are applying soon: when you first connect a bank account, the automatic feed typically brings in only the last 45 to 90 days of history. If an application asks for a full prior year, you will want to upload bank statements to backfill the rest, which ReInvestWealth supports directly. Better to find that out this week than the night before a deadline.
3,000+ entrepreneurs run their books on ReInvestWealth, and the AI Bookkeeper does the categorizing so there is very little left for you to do. When a grant application asks for last year's numbers, they are already there. Start free for 30 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there one general small business grant in Ontario?
Not really, and any page promising one is stretching. Starter Company Plus is the closest thing: it is province-funded, open to most small businesses that are registered and running, and worth up to $5,000. Everything else is targeted at a specific activity, such as training staff, hiring students, manufacturing, or commercializing technology.
Can I get an Ontario grant for a brand new business?
Some, but fewer than you would hope. Starter Company Plus generally expects a business that has been operating for at least six months, so a business that exists only on paper is usually too early. Summer Company is the exception for student founders, and free advisory support from a Small Business Enterprise Centre is available from day one. The practical move for a very new business is to get registered, open a business bank account, trade for a couple of quarters, and apply then.
Do Ontario grants require me to put in my own money?
Almost always. Starter Company Plus requires a contribution worth 25% of the grant, up to $1,250, which can include approved in-kind contributions such as equipment. The Canada-Ontario Job Grant asks small employers for one sixth of training costs. The regional development funds expect a project of at least $500,000. Treat any grant as matched money until the program's own page tells you otherwise.
Are there Ontario grants for service businesses and consultants?
Fewer than there are for manufacturers, and it helps to know that going in. Most of Ontario's large funding envelopes are pointed at manufacturing, physical projects and technology with intellectual property. A consultancy, agency or professional practice is best served by Starter Company Plus for startup costs and the Canada-Ontario Job Grant for training, plus whatever your own city runs. It is a shorter list, but it is a real one.
Where do I apply for Ontario small business grants?
For the two programs most small businesses use, Starter Company Plus and Summer Company, you apply through your local Small Business Enterprise Centre rather than a provincial website. The Canada-Ontario Job Grant is applied for through Employment Ontario. The regional development funds and the manufacturing stream have their own applications on ontario.ca. There is no single portal, which is exactly why the centres are worth a visit. If you are a woman founder, it is also worth checking the business grants for women in Canada, several of which are open to Ontario applicants.
How long does it take to hear back about an Ontario grant?
It varies widely. The regional development funds publish their timelines, and decisions typically land about three months after an intake closes. Locally delivered programs such as Starter Company Plus move faster because they run in cohorts with orientation sessions and a set completion date. Ask your centre for its calendar so you can plan spending around it, since most funding is paid on completion rather than up front.
A note from our CPAs: This guide is educational and covers the general rules for Ontario small businesses. Program terms and intake dates change, so confirm details on each program's official page before you apply, and talk to your accountant about how a grant should be reported in your specific situation. (If they use ReInvestWealth, they'll already have clean books to work from.)
Written by Maryam Ajorloo, CPA
> Maryam Ajorloo is the co-founder of ReInvestWealth and a CPA who specializes in small business tax, sales tax, and everyday bookkeeping. She helps entrepreneurs keep clean, audit-ready books and make sense of write-offs, filing deadlines, and the numbers behind their business. Read more · Connect on LinkedIn
Reviewed by Behdad Karimi Dermeni, CPA
> Co-founder of ReInvestWealth and a founding community builder at Stripe. Behdad built ReInvestWealth to give smart, busy entrepreneurs CPA-level accounting without the CPA-level price tag. Read more · Connect on LinkedIn
