Business Intelligence & Feedback request: Federal Government’s CanExport program

· by Huzaifa Saeed

The Government of Canada recently announced a new program to increase the competitiveness of Canadian companies. CanExport will provide up to $50 million over five years in direct financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Canada seeking to develop new export opportunities, particularly in high-growth priority markets and sectors.

“CanExport is one of the building blocks of the government’s export strategy: it will help Canadian companies take advantage of opportunities abroad and increase their competitiveness, while creating jobs and growth at home.

CanExport will provide Canadian small businesses with matching contributions of between $10,000 and $100,000 toward export development costs. The new program will benefit hundreds of companies each year over the next five years.

CanExport is being co-delivered by the Government of Canada through an administrative arrangement between Global Affairs Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) and the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP). NRC-IRAP has been chosen as a partner for its expertise in providing support and funding to Canadian SMEs.

To be eligible for the program, companies must employ fewer than 250 employees and have annual revenue in Canada of between $200,000 and $50 million. Eligible activities must promote export development and go beyond an applicant’s core activities, as well as represent new or expanded initiatives.

To apply or learn more about the program, please click here.”

Today, the Globe and Mail featured an article on problems with the design of the new CanExport program, Amongst the concerns in the article were:

  • If a business has spent even $1 in the last year on your product in another country, you no longer qualify for the program. In other words, the program doesn’t support incentives to help grow activity in a new market they already entered.
  • The program doesn’t support business development and expansion to a new market segment for the same company/product. The example given was a surfing company selling wetgear had hoped to expand into fishermen and other industrial uses.
  • The business unable to apply for reimbursement of any expenses that have been “preassigned.” In other words, the timelines to hear for funding approvals might hinder businesses taking advantage of trade shows and other timely opportunities.

 

We’d love to hear your feedback on the program that we can forward to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and government representatives. Please contact: Huzaifa Saeed | Policy & Research Analyst | Hamilton Chamber of Commerce | t: 905-522-1151 ext: 230 | e: h.saeed@hamiltonchamber.ca