British Columbia Business Grants: What’s Available and How to Apply

The Workplace Innovation Fund helps test and implement new ideas to address labour shortages and prepare for a changing economy.

The Video Games Business Development Program is a partnership between Creative BC and Canada Media Fund (CMF) designed to support the success and growth of B.C.-based game studios.

Applying companies must have a significant track record of production in the province, and proposals must be business-focused with plans for ongoing content production and capacity building. These plans must be achievable, appropriately resourced, and structured to obtain the best economic outcomes from public funding.

The Demo Recording program supports new and emerging artists from systemically excluded groups living in B.C. to engage in sound recording and mentorship with local music producers.
This program is supported through the Vancouver Music Fund and Amplify BC.

The Business Foundations program invests in growing businesses owned by people from systemically excluded groups in B.C.’s music ecosystem, to expand and develop networks, capacity, and infrastructure.
This program is supported through the Vancouver Music Fund and Amplify BC.

The Tree Fruit Climate Resiliency Program is designed to strengthen the resilience and preparedness of B.C.’s tree fruit sector against extreme weather events.

Traceability Adoption Program provides cost-shared funding towards the purchase and installation of traceability systems, practices, technologies, or infrastructure to help businesses meet new and existing regulatory requirements for the traceability of food, animals, and seafood products.

If your community event, celebration, festival or fair needs a small amount of financial assistance, this program could help support it.

The Special Enterprise Program (SEP), approved by Council in January 2021, is a 5 year pilot that aims to preserve and strengthen the cultural diversity, long-term viability, and economic opportunity of heritage businesses, social enterprises, and non-profit organizations in Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside.

The Small Food Processor Scale-Up Program supports projects in BC’s diverse value-added food processing sector to scale up operations to increase productivity, business opportunities, and competitiveness.
The Small Food Processor Scale-Up (SFPS) Program is a multi-year, up to $2M program funded by the Government of BC through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food (AF) and delivered by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC (IAF).

SFPS is one of two programs supported by the Food Affordability and Innovation Fund (FAI), an up to $20M fund. FAI aims to improve food affordability in BC through targeted investments in supply chains, food system innovations and partnerships. Learn more about FAI.

The Slate Development Program is designed to support the growth of mid-level and experienced B.C.-based production companies with a significant track record of owned and controlled independent production in the province. Recipients will receive support towards the development costs of two or more projects.

The Regional Recruitment and Retention of Veterinary Service Delivery for Food Animals (VET) Program supports organizations and veterinary practices to increase the availability of veterinary services for food-producing animals in underserviced communities and regions.

A sub-program of the Recruitment, Retention and Innovative Skills Program, VET supports the recruitment and retention of new veterinarians and registered veterinary technologists (RVT) to practices that deliver veterinary services for food-producing animals. For this program, food-producing animals are defined as animals raised to produce food or fiber and include cattle, swine, sheep, goats, poultry, bison, and fish. The VET program also supports community capacity building and strategic planning to support the delivery of veterinary services to food-producing animals.

The Regional Housing First Program (RHFP) will increase the creation of affordable rental housing, including addressing the needs of people experiencing homelessness in Greater Victoria. The program is the result of a partnering agreement between the Capital Regional District (CRD), BC Housing and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

Through RHFP, BC Housing, the CRD and CMHC will invest to develop and acquire new affordable housing units to be owned by the CRD or Provincial Rental Housing Corporation (PRHC). Those units will be operated by successful project proponents or non-profit partners. CRD and BC Housing will also seek partnership opportunities to further increase the supply of affordable rental housing within the capital region.

The Project Development Fund enables B.C.-owned and controlled production companies to build on development commitments secured from broadcasters, distributors and funding agencies.
The fund encourages support for existing and emerging domestic companies and provides financing in the form of non-recoupable advances for feature film script development, dramatic or animated TV projects, or documentaries.

Applications are evaluated on a first come/first served basis, and funding is available until the budget for the program is expended. A non-recoupable advance, matching up to 50% of the eligible triggering agent commitment is available.

The Poultry Biosecurity Program was created to help the BC industry develop enhanced on-farm biosecurity programs and an emergency response program that can be immediately activated to prevent a detected outbreak from spreading.

The Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) Trail Fund is funded from a portion of vehicle registration fees collected by ICBC. The fund’s goal is to enhance off-road vehicle trails, providing both B.C. residents and visitors with a quality outdoor recreation experience.

The Northern Industries Innovation Fund (NIIF) program provides incremental funding to support innovation projects that increase the competitiveness of local businesses in traditional industries across Northern B.C. The program is also intended to support economic diversification and/or viability of businesses to mitigate the economic impact of the pine beetle epidemic. NIIF supports applied research and development, new or improved products and services, and testing of innovative equipment or technologies to support capital investment decisions

The New Entrant Farm Business Accelerator (NEFBA) Program supports the growth of new entrants by providing financial support for the development and implementation of farm business plans and growth strategies. For the purposes of this program, New Entrant is defined as an agricultural producer who has not reported farm income for more than 5 years. The Program supports business planning and cost-shared purchasing of commercial farm infrastructure and equipment needed to accelerate the revenue growth of farm businesses.

Through the NEFBA Program, a new farm business can receive support to develop a growth strategy and to make investments necessary to achieve farm income growth goals, ensure commercial viability and strengthen financial sustainability.

The Music Industry Initiatives program supports initiatives that grow and develop British Columbia’s music ecosystem.

Successful projects will build the capacity of B.C.’s music industry through training, knowledge transfer, and the creation of new business opportunities. Canadian companies, not-for-profit organizations, individuals, and collectives are able to apply.

The Music Company program supports the sustainability, growth, and capacity of B.C.’s music companies through investing in business development activities.

The Livestock Waste Tissue Initiative (LWTI) was established by the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food in 2005 to support the livestock sector with the disposal of Specified Risk Material (SRM) and other abattoir waste. Recent service disruptions in the western Fraser Valley and Metro Vancouver regions have created an opportunity for new or existing operators to fill the gap in deadstock collection services.

The Live Music program supports B.C.-based live music events, creating engagement opportunities for audiences and artists.

The Live Music program supports B.C.-based live music events, creating engagement opportunities for audiences and artists.

The KTTP is a cost-shared reimbursement program intended to strategically support B.C.’s producers and processors to innovate and adapt to changing environmental, production, and market conditions through practical, applied knowledge and skill development to ensure behaviour change.
The objective of the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Program (KTTP) is to increase the competitiveness, resiliency, and innovation of the provincial agriculture and food sector through facilitated knowledge and technology transfer.

The British Columbia’s Innovative Clean Energy Fund (“ICE Fund”) is designed to support the British
Columbia (B.C.) government’s energy, economic, environmental and greenhouse gas reduction
priorities and advance B.C.’s clean energy sector. Since 2008, the ICE Fund has committed over
$114 million in funding to support pre-commercial clean energy technology projects and energy
efficiency programs.
Successful ICE Fund partnerships have included universities, First Nations, municipalities, and
many emerging clean technology companies across B.C. Technology demonstrations have
included bioenergy, solar, ocean wave and tidal, geo exchange, desalination, energy
management, smart grid and waste-to-energy.
The ICE Fund supports the Province’s CleanBC plan which helps B.C. meet its legislated GHG
emissions reduction targets by 2030, while supporting job growth and economic development
opportunities in B.C.

The ICE Fund Targeted Call supports the development and deployment of B.C.-based innovative clean
energy technology solutions. The Targeted Call is designed to support provincial priorities including
implementation of the CleanBC Roadmap to 2030 and supporting the availability and affordability of
clean energy. The Targeted Call is administered by the ICE Fund team within the B.C. Ministry of
Energy Mines and Low Carbon Innovation. Successful projects under this Targeted Call are expected
to have:

The Province of British Columbia created the Indigenous Housing Fund in 2018. This fund represents a $1.7-billion investment to build more than 3,500 affordable homes on and off reserve. There are now more than 3,220 new affordable homes open or underway through the IHF program since its launch in 2018.

The Indigenous Forest Bioeconomy Program (IFBP) enables Indigenous communities to unlock the economic, social and environmental benefits of their participation in BC’s forest sector with partners across BC through specific project support. These projects are related to the support and expansion of BC’s bioeconomy, and include the development of bioproducts from concept to commercialization, fibre capture logistics, and biomass supply and processing analysis, among other topics. The IFBP is guided by the goals, principles, and objectives of the Indigenous Forest Bioeconomy Framework which was developed through collaboration and engagement with numerous First Nations and Indigenous organizations in BC.

The ISAT program supports Indigenous Nations, communities, businesses, and organizations in increasing Indigenous participation in agriculture, seafood, food processing and related community economic development initiatives.

The program does so by addressing labour capacity and workforce challenges within the food, seafood and agriculture sectors. ISAT funds activities involved in training and skills development, peer-to-peer learning, and revitalization of cultural and economic food harvesting and production practices.

The Indigenous Food Systems and Agriculture Partnership Program (IFSAP) funds activities involved in agriculture, food processing, and/or food systems planning, training and skills development, technological adoption, productivity and profitability improvements, and climate change adaptations.

The Indigenous Food Security and Sovereignty (IFS) Grant provides non-repayable funding contributions to First Nation communities, Indigenous organizations, businesses, and entrepreneurs in British Columbia that want to participate in and receive financial supports to develop, expand, or strengthen their Indigenous food systems and innovation to enhance sustainability and growth of the Indigenous agriculture and food sovereignty.

The Heritage Façade Rehabilitation Program provides grants of up to $50,000 for the rehabilitation and seismic stabilization of the façades of registered heritage buildings.

The FSDR program is under the Food Affordability and Innovation Fund (FAI), an up to $20M fund. FAI aims to improve the affordability of food in BC through targeted investments in supply chains, food system innovations and partnerships. Specifically, the Fund will support approaches and collaborations at strategic nodes along the food supply chain to strengthen and streamline logistics, storage and transportation and improve access to affordable food, particularly in remote, rural, and/or indigenous communities. Learn more about FAI.

The Food Safety Program (FSP) seeks to increase adoption of new or improving existing food safety practices and systems by BC on-farm and BC post-farm businesses to enable the BC agrifood sector to meet existing and new national and international food safety regulatory requirements.

The Food Processing Growth Fund is a three-year, up to $20M, program funded by the Government of BC through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food (AF) and delivered by IAF.

The objective of the fund is to assist funding recipients in improving their facilities, operations, capacity, and systems to increase productivity and support utilization of BC agricultural inputs.

First Peoples’ Cultural Council delivers grants and programs that support First Nations arts, language and cultural heritage in B.C.

The Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) is accepting applications to fund projects that encourage diversity and innovation by the forest sector to utilize uneconomical residual fibre located on provincial crown land. FESBC is committed to fund projects that increase residual fibre utilization by non-lumber producing facilities, utilize fibre from fire and insect damaged stands and minimize emissions associated with open burning.

The Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) is accepting applications to fund projects to assist the Province of British Columbia in reducing wildfire risk and increasing community resiliency to wildfire across BC. FESBC is committed to ensure wildfire risk reduction projects approved by FESBC’s management are aligned with both the Ministry of Forests and the BC Wildfire Services Branch priorities and standards.

The Equity and Emerging Development Program aims to provide direct and targeted support to
emerging and/or equity seeking B.C. filmmakers. Creators can receive a grant of up to $10,000
to cover the cost of bringing together a development team to do research, develop a concept or
write a script. The grants are available for a wide range of content including scripted feature
length films or series, animated features or series, and documentaries/factual one-offs or series.

The Enhanced Replant Program provides support to help wine grape, berry, and tree fruit producers replace existing acreage with climate-resilient varieties that produce in-demand, premium fruit.
The Enhanced Replant Program (ERP), funded through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, seeks to increase the competitiveness and resiliency of the BC agri-food economy in domestic and global markets.

The Enhanced Replant Program provides support to help wine grape, berry, and tree fruit producers replace existing acreage with climate-resilient varieties that produce in-demand, premium fruit.
The Enhanced Replant Program (ERP), funded through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, seeks to increase the competitiveness and resiliency of the BC agri-food economy in domestic and global markets.

The Early Childhood Educator Training Wage Program helps strengthen the Early Childhood Educator (ECE) workforce by providing a training wage to ECE Assistants (ECEAs) and certified ECEs, employed by licensed child care facilities in the Basin, to support them to complete and/or upgrade their ECE qualifications.

The Downtown Eastside Small Arts Grants program is intended to help you as an emerging artist working and living in Downtown Eastside advance your art practice.

Group Project grants are designed to support a group of artists who want to make something together – a live performance, a group exhibition, or a video production.

The Creative BC and Rogers Group of Funds Documentary + Factual Development Fund encourages the development of motion picture projects in documentary and factual formats.
Uniquely, the Creative BC and Rogers Documentary + Factual Development Fund’s key feature is to support individual documentary and factual projects during early-stage development, before being greenlit by the market.

After a disaster, the province may declare the event eligible for Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA). Once declared, the program may provide applicants with assistance to restore uninsurable losses that are essential.

The Destination Events Program (DEP) provides funding up to 10% of your total event budget, with a maximum of $200,000 per event. You can use the funds to cover a range of operational expenses. The program aims to enhance B.C.’s reputation as an events destination, foster economic growth and increase visitation across the province.

Creative Spark Vancouver enables emerging artists to gain experience on small projects that could lead to new career opportunities, new community relationships, different perspectives on arts and education, future learning opportunities and exciting multi-faceted projects.

The Province of British Columbia created the Community Housing Fund (CHF) in 2018. This fund is a $3.3-billion investment to build more than 20,000 affordable rental homes for people with moderate and low incomes by 2031-32. Approximately 9,000 of these homes are open or underway across the province.

The Community Arts Fund grant provides support for the planning, creation, and execution of projects that focus on building community through arts-related engagement. Both organizations and individuals may apply to create projects that will help to build bridges of understanding, community confidence, and support in the City of Vancouver. Projects that serve the Downtown Eastside (DTES) community will receive special consideration as the fund was originally founded on supporting the DTES and has since expanded to reach the wider City of Vancouver community.

The Destination BC Co-operative Marketing Partnerships Program (Co-op Program) is an application-based program that provides co-operative consumer-focused marketing and promotion support to Community Consortiums (three or more communities) and Provincial Tourism Product/Experience Sector organizations in British Columbia.

The program is designed to promote and facilitate deep collaboration. The Co-op Program encourages partnerships between sectors and communities to achieve common marketing goals and leverage funding to maximize marketing efforts.

The HIP provides grants, subject to Council approval pursuant to section 206(2) of the Vancouver Charter, to encourage private investment and financially assist with the cost of heritage conservation.

The Trust’s Child Care Grants focus on strengthening the quality of child care in the Basin.

This program has two funding streams, New Equipment and Small Improvements. Each funding stream has unique eligibility and project requirements. If you are a non-profit or a for-profit provider of licensed child care, carefully review each stream below, you may be eligible to submit one application per child care facility, per funding stream.

The Downtown Eastside (DTES) Plan Grants program funds projects within the DTES that help implement actions from the DTES Plan.

The Buy BC Partnership Program is a fundamental component of Buy BC programming that provides up to $2 million in cost-shared funding annually to local producers, processors, and associations to support their ability to undertake local marketing activities that increase consumer awareness and sales of local agriculture, food and beverage products.

Buy BC is a province-wide marketing program that focuses on building greater consumer awareness, demand and sales of local agriculture, food, and beverage products within British Columbia. The Buy BC logo provides a trusted symbol for consumers to look for and identify fresh, high-quality B.C. products, and encourages them to explore new products from around the province.

The Business Foundations program invests in growing businesses owned by people from systemically excluded groups in B.C.’s music ecosystem, to expand and develop networks, capacity, and infrastructure.

This program is supported through the Vancouver Music Fund and Amplify BC.

Businesses can apply for grants up to $10,000 to support business operations, funding up to 100% of expenses.

The British Columbia Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund (BCSRIF) aims to:

ensure the fish and seafood sector in B.C. is positioned for long-term environmental and economic sustainability
support the protection and restoration of wild Pacific salmon and other fish stocks

The Beneficial Management Practices (BMP) Program works to help producers contribute to a cleaner, healthier environment with projects that improve waste management, air quality control, emissions control, soil and riparian integrity, and environmental impacts.

The Bee BC Program provides up to $225,000 in funding over three years to support small scale regional/community-based projects to research, explore, field-test and share information about best management practices associated with bee health.

The objective of the Bee BC Program is to enhance bee health throughout the province. Bee health is important, not only for the production of honey, but also for the contribution that bees make to the pollination of many crop species and to the wider environment.

The program focuses on assisting regional or community-based organizations, beekeeping associations and/or beekeepers to contribute to the overall health of bees in the Province. Up to $7,000 per project is available through the Bee BC Program to assist with project costs.

Project Two of the BC Tourism Climate Resiliency Initiative (BCTCRI)–Micro-Grants to Support Sustainability and Climate Adaptation Plan Implementation–offers micro-grant funding for organizations that already have a sustainability or climate adaptation plan and are ready to implement the recommendations into their organization by purchasing equipment, updating infrastructure, implementing new systems, or pursuing sustainability certification.

The BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund (BCMJF) is helping manufacturing companies modernize, innovate, and grow by providing funding for capital projects in all regions in B.C., particularly in communities affected by economic impacts or downturns.

The program welcomes applications from all manufacturing sectors. There is a particular focus on helping the forestry sector retrofit and develop new, sustainable value-added business lines that reduce dependency on old growth logging and make innovative use of biomaterials.

The BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund (BCMJF) is helping manufacturing companies modernize, innovate, and grow by providing funding for capital projects in all regions in B.C., particularly in communities affected by economic impacts or downturns.

The program welcomes applications from all manufacturing sectors. There is a particular focus on helping the forestry sector retrofit and develop new, sustainable value-added business lines that reduce dependency on old growth logging and make innovative use of biomaterials.

The BC Climate Agri-Solutions Fund (BCCAF) provides cost-shared funding to eligible producers and supports the training of certified crop advisors and agrologists as well as information sharing throughout the agricultural community. The objective of BCCAF is to support farmers in adopting beneficial management practices (BMPs) that store carbon and reduce greenhouse gases, specifically in the areas of:

Nitrogen Management
Cover Cropping
Rotational Grazing
These practices also provide other environmental benefits such as improved biodiversity and soil health. Other activities to support the adoption of beneficial management practices, such as outreach, education and training are also supported.

The BC Agriculture and Food Export Program is funded under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership – a five-year (2023 to 2028) investment by federal, provincial and territorial governments to strengthen and grow the agriculture and food sector. The program aims to increase sales, reduce market risk, and enhance long-term sustainability for B.C.’s agriculture, food and beverage exporters by providing cost-shared funding to undertake market development activities outside of B.C. that enable sector businesses and associations to maintain, expand and/or diversify export markets.

The B.C. Lean for Food Processors Program supports specialized business skill development to enable processors to make more informed decisions, optimize operating procedures, improve production capacity, labour productivity and strengthen their business. Lean is aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of local food and beverage processing firms in the sector.

The B.C. Fairs, Festivals and Events Fund (the BCFFE Fund) helps community event organizations recover from ongoing challenges related to:

Cost increases
Reduced revenue and sponsorships
Rising costs of equipment and services
Severe weather events

The B.C. Employer Training Grant provides funding to small, medium and large enterprises to support skills training for their workforces, including prospective new hires.

The intent of this program is to help British Columbians access the skills training required to adapt to the labour market’s changing job requirements, while also encouraging employer involvement in skills training.

The Employer Training Grant helps employers pay for training, which in turn helps employees experience increased job security or move into better jobs.

B.C.’s Agri-Business Planning Program provides funding support for primary agricultural producers and agriculture, food and beverage processors to support informed decision making and ensure business development.

B.C.’s Agri-Business Planning Program provides funding support for primary agricultural producers and agriculture, food and beverage processors to support informed decision making and ensure business development.

The BC Air Access Program provides cost-sharing opportunities for infrastructure, environmental and in select cases, airport master plans – all of which must be at eligible, public-use facilities.

Examples of projects that are eligible for BCAAP funding:
Airside operating area projects such as those related to aprons and runways
Avionics such as hazard beacons and runway lighting
Air terminal building enhancements
Environmental projects such as the preparation of a greenhouse gas inventory (baselining)
Groundside projects such as parking facility enhancements
Airport master plans for small airports

The Atlin Capital program provides grant funding to support community infrastructure projects that will strengthen the local and regional economy. The program supports public multi-use facilities or capital investments that drive revenue and job creation and will provide a long-term asset for the community of Atlin.

The Atlin Business Façade Improvement program provides grant funding for local businesses and not-forprofits to enhance businesses façades, catalyzing economic development in the community. The grant
funding provides a rebate to business/building owners to invest in aesthetic improvements to storefronts
that encourages increased walk-in traffic and patronage of commercial establishments.
The Business Façade Improvement Atlin program represents a partnership between the Province of B.C.’s
Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs and Northern Development who have both provided funding
for this initiative.

The Agritech Concierge Program supports agritech companies to grow and scale their businesses, building on the success of British Columbia.’s Agritech Grant Program and the recommendations of the 2020 Food Security Task Force Report.