Last night I went to bed after midnight as I followed the results of the election. It is clear that we are going to have a new majority government soon. This fact will certainly impact some government funding programs, but there is no reason to panic just yet.
2. The election results do not impact provincial funding such as Ontario Jobs and Prosperity Fund for large scale expansion, Export Market Access,Ontario Exporters Fund, Southwestern and Eastern Ontario Development Fund.
3. Canada Ontario Job Grant which is a half-federal half-provincial funding program for skills training may be positively impacted as Liberals promised to increase its budget by $500 million. New government may want to review the program rules though, we’ll keep you posted.
4. Federally funded R&D programs, such as SR&ED Tax Credit and IRAP, will likely stay as they are, because they were around for decades and proved their efficiency.
5. FedDev Ontario funding programs may be significantly impacted. FedDev Ontario Minister Garry Goodyear lost his mandate which means that the agency will have a new boss. This may immediately impact the following programs:Investing in Business Innovation, Investing in Business Growth and Productivity, Advanced Manufacturing Fund and other programs FedDev manages directly.
The change should not impact CME SMART program for equipment and software purchasing, SOFII for commercialization and Yves Landry Foundation’s AIME program for skills training. Although those programs were funded by FedDev, they have allocated budgets at least until March 31, 2016.
After all my suggestion is to file your funding application sooner than later to avoid the disappointment of the change. Respond to this email to get started now.
Sincerely,