Business Programs: Canada and Ontario
| Ontario | Canada |
The Province of Ontario offers many financial assistance and incentive programs to assist business. A selection of programs of interest to research-intensive businesses can be found below. Please note that the content on these pages has been provided by the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development.
| Selected Programs for Business offered by the Government of Ontario |
| Advanced Manufacturing Investment Strategy Program - Ministry of Economic Development: Interest free loan to transform manufacturing processes and adopt leading edge technologies. |
| Commercialization Investment Funds Program - Ontario (OCIF): Grants to leverage seed capital for spin-off technology companies created by faculty, staff or students of research institutes. |
| Computer Animation and Special Effects Tax Credit (OCASE) - Ontario: Ontario tax credits for computer animation and special effect activities in film or TV productions. |
| ecoEnergy for Renewable Heat: Financial assistance to increase the use of renewable thermal energy and develop capacity in the renewable thermal energy industry. |
| Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit - Ontario: Ontario refundable tax credit for labour, marketing and distribution expenditures for the creation of interactive digital media products. |
| MaRS - Business Mentorship and Entrepreneurship Program (BMEP): A major Ontario Government commercialization initiative to meet the needs of high performance technology entrepreneurs. Services and resources are delivered through member organizations of the Ontario Commercialization Network (OCN). |
| MaRS Discovery District (MaRS): World-class research and business incubation facilities in biomedical innovation and commercialization. |
| Next Generation of Jobs Fund - Biopharmaceutical Investment Program - Ministry of Research and Innovation: A five-year, $150-million strategy to encourage brand name pharmaceutical firms and advanced-stage human health biotech firms (e.g. vaccine manufacturers) to establish and grow their research and development and/or their advanced manufacturing investments in Ontario. |
| Next Generation of Jobs Fund - Jobs & Investment Program - Ministry of Economic Development: A five-year $1.15 billion strategy to support companies in business expansion /retention and attract foreign investment in green auto research, parts production and assembly; clean fuels research, development and commercialization; manufacturing, processing, environmental technologies; services (ICT & Financial), anchor investments to support cluster development; and opportunity based/ unique investments. |
| Ontario Business Research Institute Tax Credit (OBRITC): A refundable tax credit program for qualifying corporations incurring qualified expenditures in respect of SR&ED under an eligible contract with an eligible ERI. |
| Ontario Centres of Excellence - Investment Accelerator Fund Program: A major Ontario Government commercialization initiative to provide eligible technology-based start-ups with between $250,000 and $500,000 in seed capital to support technology development, market potential analysis, prototype development, early customer trials, promotion and patenting costs. |
| Ontario Centres of Excellence: 6 sector-based centres and various programs to strengthen research linkages between academia and industry. |
| Ontario Innovation Demonstration Fund: Non-interest bearing repayable or forgivable loans; royalty agreements and equity participation to help commercialize innovative technologies. |
| Ontario Research Fund - Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation: Supports the operational costs (direct and indirect) and the capital costs of research of Ontario's research community. |
| Ontario Retail Sales Tax Exemption on R&D and Manufacturing Equipment - Ontario Ministry of Revenue: Exemption from the Ontario Retail Sales Tax Act for equipment used primarily in manufacturing exclusively for R&D, or in non-profit medical research facilities for medical research and investigation. |
| Ontario Solar Thermal Heating Incentive (OSTHI) : Financial assistance for Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI) organizations to increase the use of renewable energy; and develop capacity in Ontario's solar thermal industry. |
| Scientific Research and Experimental Development Expenditures (SR&ED) - Ontario: A deduction in respect of Ontario research and development. |
