AI funding for Canadian companies
Two federal programs pay for the kind of work we do: BDC LIFT and NRC IRAP AI Assist. This page is what each one will and won't cover, who qualifies, and where a Canadian advisory firm fits in the plan. The rest of the landscape is listed so you know what to ignore.
01 · The short version
Two programs that reach you
Canada's June 2026 “AI for All” strategy set a target of taking business AI adoption from 19% to 60% by 2034. Most of the money behind it goes to research, compute, and large projects. Two programs reach a mid-market company that wants to measure, govern, or implement AI, and neither one is a grant you apply for online.
| Program | Status | What it is | Fits you if |
|---|---|---|---|
| BDC LIFT | Open, continuous intake | Loans of $25K to $2M for AI adoption, paired with a mandatory BDC advisory plan. A preferential rate when the solution or the integrator is Canadian. | Revenue over $1M, profitable, and you have a specific project or a specific question. |
| NRC IRAP AI Assist | Open, through IRAP advisors | Non-repayable contributions to small and mid-sized businesses for AI planning and pilot projects, plus a free 20-hour advisory service. | Incorporated, for-profit, 500 or fewer employees, and there is genuine technical work to do. |
Program details verified September 2026 against the official pages linked below. Programs change. Check them before you plan around any of this.
02 · BDC LIFT
BDC LIFT
A $500 million program from the Business Development Bank of Canada that lends established companies the money to adopt AI. It is a loan, not a grant, and BDC decides who is approved. Nobody can get you approved, and we don't pretend otherwise.
Who qualifies
The track that applies to AI work is Track 1, Digital Transformation and AI. As of September 2026, BDC's published criteria are a Canadian business with at least $1 million in annual revenue, demonstrated profitability, and a solid credit history. Loans run from $25,000 to $2 million, amortized over up to six years, with capital repayment deferrable for up to twelve months. Nearly every industry and every province is eligible, and you don't need to be a BDC client already.
Source: BDC LIFT Track 1
The mandatory Digital Plan
Every LIFT loan requires a Digital Plan from BDC's own advisory team: a readiness assessment, a roadmap, and an implementation plan. The plan goes faster and lands better when you arrive with a measured answer rather than a wish. The advisory is a paid BDC engagement, priced by scope. BDC will finance the cost, and LIFT offers preferential pricing on it.
Sources: BDC LIFT · BDC Advisory Services
What the loan can pay for
BDC's list of eligible uses includes readiness assessments and audits, AI use-case development and implementation, system configuration and integration, data infrastructure, and training and adoption costs, when they are part of the plan BDC's advisor reviews. What it is not for: working capital, hiring, or “we'll figure out the AI part later.”
Source: BDC LIFT Track 1, eligible uses
The Canadian supplier rate
BDC offers a preferential rate when the technology solution or the integrator is Canadian. The press reported that rate as 2.25% at launch. BDC's own site doesn't publish a number, and BDC's advisor decides who counts as Canadian. There is no public directory, so it comes down to who you bring to the table.
Sources: BDC · BetaKit, April 2026
Where our work fits
- The number the Digital Plan needs. An AI Value & Cost Audit produces exactly what BDC's advisor is going to ask for: what you spend, what it returns, and what to do first. It is a readiness assessment in BDC's own wording.
- A roadmap the loan can fund. A Data & Foundations Readiness engagement ends in a costed implementation plan. Implementation and integration are eligible uses. The roadmap is the bridge between the two.
- A Canadian firm on the other side of the plan. Magnitude North is a Canadian company and the principals do the work. If we implement, the Canadian-integrator condition is met by the people who scoped it.
- A quote the advisor can use. Written scope, deliverables, fixed price, and confirmation that the work is done in Canada. That is what folds our work into the plan and applies the rate.
03 · NRC IRAP AI Assist
NRC IRAP AI Assist
The National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program has funded small-business innovation for decades. Its AI Assist stream, launched in 2024, pays ordinary businesses to plan and pilot AI, and the contributions are not loans.
How it actually works
There is no application form. You call IRAP at 1-877-994-4727 and are assigned an Industrial Technology Advisor, who decides whether your project fits and shapes the funding request with you. You must be an incorporated, for-profit Canadian business with 500 or fewer full-time employees, and the project has to involve genuine technical work, not day-to-day operations.
Source: NRC IRAP
What it pays for
Contributions reimburse a portion of eligible costs, which include Canadian subcontractors. NRC publishes no typical award. Standard IRAP terms cover a share of salaries and roughly half of contractor costs, and the advisor sets the amount. That is where an outside firm fits: the contribution offsets part of what you pay for the work.
Source: NRC IRAP AI Assist
The free 20-hour advisory
IRAP also funds a separate advisory service: up to 20 hours over four months, delivered by non-profits and universities, for a flat $500. It covers feasibility, cost estimation, data quality, and governance. Private firms cannot sell it. If someone offers to, be careful. Ask your advisor for a referral.
Source: NRC IRAP AI Assist call for proposals
Stacking with LIFT
LIFT is a loan and IRAP is not, so they combine. If you qualify for both, the IRAP contribution reduces the size of the loan you need. If you are under LIFT's revenue floor, IRAP is the program to ask about first. Either way, make the call before you sign anything over about $50,000, because a contribution that covers part of the work changes what is worth doing.
04 · Everything else
What we checked and set aside
These exist, and one of them may apply to you. None of them is the first call to make.
Regional AI Initiative
Repayable contributions from the federal regional development agencies for projects of $500K and up, usually in manufacturing, health, cleantech, or agriculture. Open through PrairiesCan, CED Quebec, and ACOA. Closed in BC and Ontario. A $500 million expansion was announced in June 2026 with no date.
Source: ISED
Provincial programs
Quebec's ESSOR program covers half of a digital diagnostic to $20K and half of its implementation to $50K, with consultant fees explicitly eligible, until March 2027. Ontario's OCI Sector Adoption stream funds AI in manufacturing, mining, agri-food, and construction. Alberta, BC, and Nova Scotia have vouchers aimed at vendors or delivered by their own staff.
Sources: Investissement Québec · Ontario Centre of Innovation
Tax credits and training grants
There is no AI adoption tax credit. SR&ED was expanded in 2026 but does not cover advisory or integration work, only genuine experimental development. Provincial job grants in BC, Alberta, and Ontario fund training and explicitly exclude consulting. If an engagement includes a training deliverable, ask your accountant.
Sources: Canada Revenue Agency · WorkBC · Ontario
Governance, compliance, and the US
Nothing in Canada funds AI governance, ISO/IEC 42001, or OSFI E-23 readiness. Those are compliance costs. In the US there is no federal equivalent to LIFT or IRAP. The AI for Main Street Act passed the House in January 2026 and would fund advice through Small Business Development Centers, not projects. We work with US clients regularly. The funding conversation is just shorter.
Sources: ISED · congress.gov
05 · Where we stand
What we don't do
We don't write applications, we don't charge a fee for “helping you get approved,” and we don't quote success rates. There is a cottage industry that does those things, and the last federal adoption program showed how that ends.
What we do is measure the thing the funding is for, put a written scope and a fixed price in front of the advisor, and do the work in Canada. If you're not sure a project is worth funding at all, the first call is free and ends with a plain answer either way.
Tell us what you're thinking of doing.
Book a free 30-minute call. We'll tell you which of these programs is worth a phone call, and whether the project is worth doing at all.
Book a 30-minute call Free. No deck, no pitch, just a working conversation.
Sources, verified September 2026: BDC LIFT · BDC LIFT Track 1 · BetaKit on the launch rate · NRC IRAP AI Assist · NRC IRAP advisory call · ISED, AI for All · Regional AI Initiative · ESSOR · OCI CIT. Magnitude North is not affiliated with any of these organizations.