Every few months a client asks the same question, usually in the same words: is there a grant for this?

It is a fair question and it deserves a real answer rather than a link to a grant directory. So we spent a day on it. We took the programs the Ontario government named in its May announcement, added the federal ones owners still search for, and checked each one against the page run by the organization that actually writes the cheque. Where a program publishes guidelines, we downloaded them and read them.

Everything below was checked on September 26, 2026. Where a number or a status comes from a program administrator’s own page or document, we say so and quote it. Several of the things we found contradict what the grant directory sites currently say, and we show those too, because the gap between the two is the practical lesson.

The short version

Program Amount Status today Will it pay for a website
DMAP (Ontario, OCI) Up to $15,000, 50% of cost Open, first come first served No. It buys a written plan
TDP (Ontario, OCI) Up to $50,000 “Currently Closed for Applications” Not while it is closed
RMPG (Ontario, OCI) Up to $5,000, matched “Now accepting applications!” No. Explicitly excluded
Digital Main Street DTG $2,500 “The portal is now closed” Not while it is closed
CDAP (federal) Was up to $15,000 Closed since February 19, 2024 No
BDC LIFT (federal) $25,000 to $5 million Open It is a loan, not a grant
Starter Company Plus (Toronto) $5,000 Open, closes October 9 at 4:29 p.m. Probably, ask your advisor

If you read nothing else: the only open, non-repayable program on that list whose published expense categories can plausibly cover building a website is the last one, and it closes in under two weeks.

What Ontario announced in May, and what it actually bought

On May 21, 2026 the province announced another $5 million for the Digital Competence Centre, the small business digitalization program the Ontario Centre of Innovation runs on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. The release says the money is expected to support nearly 450 businesses, brings the total invested in the centre to $20 million, and follows more than 800 grants since the centre launched in 2022. Nina Tangri, Associate Minister of Small Business, is quoted on making targeted investments to help small businesses compete in the digital economy.

The announcement names three streams and three numbers: up to $15,000, up to $50,000, and up to $5,000. Those three numbers are what get copied into every roundup article. They are correct as maximums and they are close to useless as a guide to what you can do this week, for reasons the announcement does not go into.

DMAP: $15,000, and it buys a document

The Digital Modernization and Adoption Plan is the entry point. OCI’s program page describes it as up to $15,000 to develop a custom plan with a Digital Adoption Consultant, best suited to Ontario based for-profit SMEs with 1 to 499 employees, on a “First-come, first-served model, while funds last”.

The full guidelines OCI publishes for the program fill in the parts that matter.

It is half, not all. The funding table is explicit: OCI contributes “50 per cent (maximum) of total eligible project costs, up to $15,000”, and the applicant contributes “50 per cent (minimum)”, a minimum 1:1 cash match. The worked example in the document is a $30,000 project where OCI pays $15,000 and you pay $15,000. So the headline number is the size of the project, halved. If you were picturing $15,000 arriving to spend, picture $30,000 leaving first.

It is a reimbursement. The guidelines say funding is released to the SME after the project is finished and the completed plan and the consultant’s invoice are submitted. You pay the consultant. Months later you are paid back half.

It buys a plan, not a build. The deliverable is the Digital Modernization and Adoption Plan itself: a written strategy produced by a consultant. Nothing in this stream pays for the software, the hardware or the site that the plan recommends. That is what the next stream was for.

Retail and e-commerce are excluded outright. This is the sentence most roundups leave out. Under the eligibility section, the guidelines list the types of small business that are ineligible, and the first entry is “Businesses engaged in consumer facing retail or e-commerce operations”. The list continues: corporate chains, franchises, registered charities, representatives of multi-level marketing companies, real estate brokerages, and not-for-profits.

Read that against the audience most people assume a small business digital grant is for. If you run a shop, a restaurant with an ordering page, or an online store, DMAP is not open to you at all, whatever the $15,000 in the press release suggests.

You must be incorporated. The applicant criteria require you to “Be incorporated federally or provincially with a valid Business Number” and to be a for-profit, privately owned business with a permanent establishment in Ontario. A sole proprietorship does not clear that bar.

You have to hire from a closed list. The guidelines require the consultant to be on the DCC Roster: “DACs must be selected from the DCC Roster.” A consultant not on the roster can be used only if that firm applies and qualifies for the roster first. OCI’s own registration page currently says “General applications to join the DAC Roster are temporarily closed”, and the same page says “General applications to join the vendor database are temporarily closed”. It also says an SME that has found a consultant outside the roster can contact its Business Development Manager or Digital Adoption Advisor for approval instructions, so there is a path, but it is a conversation rather than a form.

Approval is not automatic. The guidelines call DMAP “a discretionary, non-entitlement program with limited funding” and state plainly that “Not all eligible applications will be approved for funding.” Applications cannot even be started by you: they “MUST be initiated in AccessOCI by an OCI Business Development Manager (BDM) or an OCI DAA.” You submit a client intake form, which the guidelines note “does not constitute an application for funding”, and wait for someone to call.

In its own February 5, 2026 media release, OCI describes both DMAP and the implementation stream as oversubscribed.

TDP: the $50,000 in the announcement is closed

The Technology Demonstration Program is the stream that pays for the actual technology, and it is the source of the largest number in the May announcement.

OCI’s program page today says: “Receive up to $50K in support to implement DMAP recommendations for your digital transformation,” directly under which sits the line “Currently Closed for Applications.” The page says it is best suited to SMEs with $750K or more in annual revenue that have completed a DMAP.

So the $50,000 has two gates in front of it even when it opens. You need a finished DMAP, which means you needed to be eligible for DMAP, which rules out retail and e-commerce. And you need three quarters of a million dollars in revenue.

Here is the part that surprised us. The full Technology Demonstration Program guidelines that OCI still publishes on its own domain say something different from its own page, on three counts:

OCI program page, September 26, 2026 Published TDP guidelines
Maximum Up to $50K “50 per cent (maximum) of total eligible project costs, up to $150,000”
Revenue floor $750K+ “at least $500,000 of annual revenues in one of the previous three tax years”
Status “Currently Closed for Applications” “Program Status: Open for applications (accepted on a rolling basis)”

Both of the full guideline documents still served from oc-innovation.ca, for DMAP and for the demonstration program, are dated November and December 2022. The program page’s own “Program Guidelines” buttons no longer point at those files. They point at Dropbox folders.

None of this is scandalous. Programs get rescoped and web pages get updated at different speeds. But it is the reason a directory site can tell you, in good faith and with a citation, that a $150,000 grant is open on a rolling basis when the administrator’s page says the stream is closed and the cap is $50,000. When the two disagree, the program page wins, and the email address on it wins over both.

RMPG: open, and it will not pay for your website

The Retail Modernization Project Grant is the one stream currently advertised on OCI’s page with the words “Now accepting applications!”. It was added when the centre was expanded to cover retailers in April 2025.

It is up to $5,000 in non-repayable matched funding. Eligibility, from the official one-page program summary: an Ontario based retailer open to the public, operating from a physical location and not home based, with 1 to 50 full-time staff, at least one year in operation, and at least $100,000 in annual revenue. The same sheet describes the fit as “any business selling goods or physical services to the public, e.g. book shop, café, boutique, hairdresser”.

The eligible technology list is generous and specific: modern point-of-sale systems, inventory management, accounting software, CRM tools to track customer loyalty, self-checkout kiosks, RFID scanners and electronic shelf labels, AI customer interaction systems, loss prevention video, and scheduling and labour management.

And then, at the bottom of the same sheet, in small type:

Note: Software subscriptions, fixtures and fittings, marketing, website & SEO costs are not covered

That is the answer to the question we get asked, printed by the program itself. The $5,000 retail grant buys a till, a scanner, a shelf label system or a loyalty tool. It does not buy a website, it does not buy search work, and it does not buy the monthly software subscriptions that most modern retail tools are actually sold as.

The same sheet excludes businesses engaged in e-commerce operations, corporate chains, franchises, registered charities, and professional services.

Two more things worth knowing before you spend an afternoon on this. OCI’s page carries the note that “Applicants can apply to either DMAP or RMPG, but not both”, so the two smaller streams are an either/or rather than a sequence. And in practice the exclusions mean a retailer’s only route into the DCC is the $5,000 one, because the $15,000 planning stream shuts consumer facing retail out.

The federal programs people still search for

CDAP is gone, and has been for two and a half years. The Canada Digital Adoption Program is still the most searched term in this category and still appears in sales emails. BDC’s own page states that CDAP “is no longer accepting new applications for the Boost Your Business Technology stream” as of February 19, 2024, and that only businesses with a signed grant agreement from before that date may still be eligible, subject to the remaining program deadlines. There is no federal successor grant. If anyone offers to get you a CDAP grant in 2026, that is the end of the conversation.

BDC LIFT is real and it is debt. On April 24, 2026 BDC launched LIFT, a $500 million program aimed at getting more than 1,000 Canadian SMEs to adopt AI, pairing advisory support with financing of $25,000 to $5 million. Isabelle Hudon, BDC’s President and CEO, is quoted in the release: “SMEs are stretched thin and finding time for AI is a real challenge. But their competition isn’t waiting.” Third-party guides describe revenue floors of $1 million on the digital and AI track and $5 million on the equipment track; treat those as unofficial and ask BDC. The important point is structural. LIFT is a loan at a preferential rate with the option to postpone principal, not a grant. It belongs in a financing conversation, not a funding one.

Digital Main Street is paused. The Digital Transformation Grant, the $2,500 that paid for a great many Ontario main street websites, states on its own page: “The portal is now closed, however the digital assessment and all online training modules will continue to be an available resource for your business.” No reopening date is given. The assessment and training remain free and are genuinely worth an hour if you have never done a structured review of your own digital setup.

The one that is open, and closes October 9

Starter Company Plus is a provincial program delivered through Small Business Enterprise Centres. In Toronto it is run by the City, and the City’s page today says: “Applications are now open. Apply below by October 9 at 4:29 p.m.”

What you get: up to 15 hours of business training, up to three months of advisory and mentoring, and a micro-grant of $5,000 for participants who are selected.

Who can apply, from the City’s criteria: a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, 18 or older, not in school, devoting at least 35 hours a week to the business with no other employment, not in another government funded employment program, and resident in Toronto with proof of address. The business must be registered (sole proprietor, partnership or corporation) with a Toronto address, have a commercial bank account matching the registration, have been operating at least six months and at most five years with financial statements showing activity, be majority owned by you, hold any required licences, and operate year round with consistent monthly revenue. A long list of business types is excluded, among them online resellers, franchises, cryptocurrency operations, charities and non-profits, and cannabis businesses.

One condition catches people out: you “Must have already invested 25 per cent of the grant amount ($1,250) into the business” at the time you apply. This is money already spent, evidenced, not money you promise to spend.

On what the $5,000 may be spent: the City’s page sets out eligibility and the program’s components but does not publish an expense list. Several other Small Business Enterprise Centres running the same provincial program publish theirs, and those lists share a shape: equipment, tools, training, marketing, leasehold improvements and one-time supplies are eligible, while rent, utilities, inventory, wages, travel, vehicles, phones and office supplies are not. A website is a one-time marketing or setup cost and normally sits on the eligible side of that line. Because the list is administered locally, confirm it with your Toronto advisor before you plan around it rather than taking our word or a directory’s.

Note the eligibility floor and ceiling together: at least six months trading, at most five years. If you incorporated in 2019, this program is not for you. If you started last spring, it might be the single best-fitting thing on this page.

What we would actually tell an owner

If you run a shop or a restaurant. RMPG, the $5,000 retail grant, is open now, it is matched, and it will pay for the till and the loyalty tool. It will not pay for the site or the ordering page. Budget those separately and do not wait for a program that pays for them, because at the moment there is not one.

If you are a services or trades business, incorporated, not retail. DMAP is the one you are eligible for, and it is worth understanding for what it is: half the cost of a consultant writing you a plan, paid back to you afterwards, with the implementation stream that was supposed to follow it currently closed. If you already know what you want built, a planning grant is an expensive way to be told.

If you started your business in the last five years and you are in Toronto. Look at Starter Company Plus this week. Five thousand dollars, non-repayable, and the window closes on October 9 at 4:29 p.m. The training hours are a real cost in time, and for a young business the mentoring is often worth more than the cheque.

If you were waiting for CDAP to come back. It is not coming back. Two and a half years is long enough to stop planning around it.

In every case, do the arithmetic before the paperwork. A matched grant of $5,000 means you are spending $10,000. If the project is worth $10,000 to you, do it. If it is only worth doing because half is subsidized, it was not worth doing. The grant should change the timing of a decision you have already made, not make the decision.

How to check any of this yourself in five minutes

This is the transferable part, because these programs change and this article will age.

  1. Find the administrator, not the program. Ontario announces; OCI administers. BDC administers CDAP and LIFT. The City of Toronto administers Starter Company Plus locally. The administrator’s site is the only one whose status line is worth anything.
  2. Read the status wording on the program page, today. “Currently Closed for Applications” and “Now accepting applications!” are the two sentences that decide your afternoon, and no directory reproduces them reliably.
  3. Download the guidelines and go straight to funding and eligibility. The two things that surprise people are always in there: the match ratio, and the list of ineligible business types.
  4. Check the small print for your specific cost. “Website & SEO costs are not covered” was one line at the bottom of a one-page PDF, and it is the whole answer for anyone reading the retail grant as a web budget.
  5. Then email the program contact. Every one of these programs lists named staff with addresses. A two-line question answered by the person who screens applications beats a week of reading.

We checked five directory pages while writing this. One listed the retail grant’s deadline as February 1, 2026 while OCI’s page says it is accepting applications. One listed the implementation stream as open on a rolling basis while OCI’s page says it is closed. One listed the Toronto grant as closing October 2 while the City’s page says October 9. One added professional services to DMAP’s ineligible list, which the published DMAP guidelines do not include, though the retail grant’s sheet does exclude them. None of those sites is dishonest. They are all just reading a snapshot of a page that moved.

If you want a second pair of eyes

We are a small studio in Toronto and we do not write grant applications. What we can do, in about ten minutes and at no cost, is tell you whether the thing you want built falls inside or outside the expense list of a program you are looking at, because that is the question that wastes the most time.

If a program’s page says one thing and the consultant quoting you says another, send us both and we will read them. If what you actually need is a fixed price for the work itself, our pricing is published, which at least makes the comparison to a matched grant straightforward.

Sources

  • Ontario Investing $5 Million to Help Small Businesses Adopt Digital Technologies, Government of Ontario, May 21, 2026, retrieved September 26, 2026, for the $5 million, the nearly 450 businesses, the $20 million total, the more than 800 grants since 2022 and the Nina Tangri quote
  • Digital Competence Centre, Ontario Centre of Innovation, retrieved September 26, 2026, for the three stream amounts, the “Currently Closed for Applications” line on TDP, the “Now accepting applications!” line on RMPG, the “First-come, first-served model, while funds last” wording, the $750K TDP revenue floor, the employee ranges, the either/or note on DMAP and RMPG, and the Dropbox destinations of the guideline buttons
  • DCC Digital Modernization and Adoption Program, full guidelines, Ontario Centre of Innovation, December 2022, downloaded and read September 26, 2026, for the 50 per cent cost share and $30,000 worked example, the reimbursement model, the ineligible business types including consumer facing retail and e-commerce, the incorporation requirement, the DCC Roster requirement and the non-entitlement wording
  • DCC Technology Demonstration Program, full guidelines, Ontario Centre of Innovation, November 2022, downloaded and read September 26, 2026, for the $150,000 cap, the $500,000 revenue floor, the rolling open status and the technology vendor requirement, all of which the current program page contradicts
  • Events, DAC Registration and Vendor Registration, Ontario Centre of Innovation, retrieved September 26, 2026, for “General applications to join the DAC Roster are temporarily closed”, the same wording on the vendor database, and the route for a consultant found outside the roster
  • Retail Modernization Project Grant one-pager, Ontario Centre of Innovation, downloaded and read September 26, 2026, for the $5,000 matched funding, the full eligibility list, the eligible technology categories, the exclusion of e-commerce, chains, franchises, charities and professional services, and the note that software subscriptions, fixtures and fittings, marketing, website and SEO costs are not covered
  • Ontario Strengthens Small Business Competitiveness Through Digital Modernization, Ontario Centre of Innovation, February 5, 2026, retrieved September 26, 2026, for the description of DMAP and TDP as oversubscribed and the April 2025 expansion to retailers
  • Canada Digital Adoption Program, Business Development Bank of Canada, retrieved September 26, 2026, for the February 19, 2024 closure of the Boost Your Business Technology stream and the treatment of agreements signed before that date
  • BDC Launches LIFT: Getting Canadian SMEs off the AI sidelines, Business Development Bank of Canada, April 24, 2026, retrieved September 26, 2026, for the $500 million, the more than 1,000 SMEs, the $25,000 to $5 million loan range and the Isabelle Hudon quote
  • Ontario Grants, Digital Main Street, retrieved September 26, 2026, for the $2,500 Digital Transformation Grant and the statement that the portal is now closed while the assessment and training remain available
  • Starter Company Plus Grant, City of Toronto, retrieved September 26, 2026, for the October 9 at 4:29 p.m. deadline, the $5,000 micro-grant, the training and mentoring hours, the applicant and business criteria, the excluded business types and the $1,250 prior investment requirement