CDAP Is Gone. Here's What Actually Replaced It.

Most of the advice you'll find about funding digital work in Canada still points at a program that no longer exists. The Canada Digital Adoption Program — CDAP — closed its Boost Your Business Technology stream to new applicants in February 2024, closed Grow Your Business Online that September, and wound down entirely on March 31, 2025. There is no direct federal successor. If a proposal or a blog post is still quoting CDAP grants at you, it is out of date.

Here is what a Canadian small business can actually use in 2026 — and how the pieces stack. Program terms shift; everything below is current as of August 2026 and worth re-verifying at the source before you commit.

The workhorse: BDC's LIFT program

The closest thing to a CDAP successor is LIFT, from the Business Development Bank of Canada: a $500-million envelope of consulting support and loans — $25,000 to $2 million for software and AI projects, and up to $5 million where physical automation is involved.

The detail that matters most, and gets quoted least: LIFT offers a preferential rate — around 2.25% as of this writing — when the work is delivered by a Canadian AI supplier or systems integrator. The nationality of your vendor changes the price of your money. A US agency cannot offer you that; a Canadian one can.

The catch: LIFT is built for established businesses — roughly one million dollars or more in annual revenue — and every loan is subject to BDC's eligibility review and approval. It finances real projects, not experiments.

The training layer: provincial job grants

If your systems project includes training your team on the new system — and a good one always does — Manitoba's Canada-Manitoba Job Grant is open for 2025–26: it covers 75% of eligible third-party training costs, up to $10,000 per employee and $100,000 per training project, for businesses with 100 or fewer staff. Structured properly, the training line of a systems engagement is substantially recoverable.

• Manitoba: Canada-Manitoba Job Grant — 75% of eligible third-party training costs, up to $10,000 per employee.
• Ontario: Digital Main Street offers smaller grants (around $2,500) aimed at storefront businesses, in periodic intakes.
• Saskatchewan: the provincial job grant closed in March 2025 after a federal funding cut — businesses there should lean on the federal layer.

The R&D layer: SR&ED just got bigger

If any part of your work involves resolving genuine technological uncertainty, the SR&ED tax credit had its largest expansion in decades this year: the enhanced 35% refundable credit now applies to up to $6 million of qualifying expenditures per year — doubled from $3 million — and capital expenditures are eligible again. Most routine systems work does not qualify, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. But bespoke builds that push into unknown territory can. Talk to an SR&ED specialist before you claim, not after.

How the stack actually works

For a Manitoba business of, say, twenty people taking on a serious operations-systems project, the pieces fit together like this:

• LIFT finances the build — at the preferential rate if your integrator is Canadian.
• The Job Grant recovers most of the training line.
• SR&ED applies only if the project genuinely qualifies — a bonus, never the plan.

None of this requires a grant-writing consultancy. It requires a project scoped clearly enough that a lender can read it — which is a good test of the project anyway.

VstreamX is a Canadian systems integrator based in Brandon, Manitoba — which means LIFT's Canadian-supplier rate applies to work we deliver. If you are weighing a systems project and want the funding math walked through honestly, that is part of the first conversation. Verify current program terms at bdc.ca and gov.mb.ca before committing.