Ontario – particularly southern Ontario – is one of the most competitive business environments in the country. This landscape forces businesses to improve constantly to stay alive, through innovation in areas like customer service, market diversification, productivity, product offering, and the list goes on.
While it’s a stressful situation for small companies just starting out, it also means that only the best companies are able to remain viable and thrive in the Ontario market. And these best-of-the-best businesses, with their willingness and ability to innovate, are in a great position to take advantage of some government funding to propel them into greater success.
Here are a few highlights from the 2017 Federal budget that support the work of innovative businesses:
- Expanded Funding for Hiring and Training: Several initiatives to support youth hiring, STEM education, upskill training, and green job creation.
- New Strategic Innovation Fund: $1.26B to create a new five-year Strategic Innovation Fund to support a wider range of industries in their innovative endeavors.
- National Research Council Funding: NRC undertakes initiatives such as providing Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) grants to Canadian businesses.
- Sustainable Technology Fund: A range of funding programs to support green and sustainable technology development.
- Procurement Opportunities for Government Contracts: Improving Canadian companies’ access to government contracts and helping to commercialize innovations.
Overall, the budget is very innovation-friendly! Ontario business owners should keep their sights set on what specific programs become available as the year progresses.
On top of that, the government has an Ontario-specific program, “Investing in Business Growth and Productivity” (IBGP) that provides funding for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ontario who are innovating, adopting new technologies or processes, and potentially expanding into the global marketplace.
It’s clear the government recognizes the strength of Canada’s businesses and the importance of promoting innovation to make Canada a key player in a sustainable global economy. We look forward to seeing what businesses can achieve with this support – especially our fellow companies in Ontario!
Innovators Alliance is a peer-to-peer networking group of CEOs committed to driving business growth through innovation. Be our guest at one of our upcoming events!
Is your company innovative? Try our Innovator Self-Test. It has only 10 questions and takes less than 2 minutes!
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