Grants, tax credits, and loans work very differently for AI projects — how to tell them apart and combine them in Canada.
dgm is an independent osFoundry integration partner — not affiliated with osFoundry’s maker (OS LLC), and dgm has no completed client integrations yet.
Grants, tax credits and loans fund AI projects very differently in Canada. Knowing which is which helps you combine them sensibly.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Grant | Up-front, non-repayable; competitive; e.g. Scale AI, some RDA programs |
| Tax credit | Claimed after the fact on your return; e.g. SR&ED (refundable for CCPCs) |
| Loan | Repayable financing, often with advisory; e.g. BDC LIFT |
The three funding shapes
A grant pays a share of costs up front and is usually competitive and non-repayable (Scale AI, certain regional programs). A tax credit is claimed afterward on your corporate return — SR&ED is the big one, refundable at 35% for Canadian-controlled private corporations up to the limit. A loan is repayable financing, often bundled with advice (BDC LIFT).
How to combine them
A common pattern is grant or internship money for the build (IRAP, Mitacs, Scale AI), SR&ED claimed afterward on eligible R&D, and financing (BDC LIFT) or a provincial program on top — within each program’s stacking rules. Program parameters, amounts and intake windows change frequently — confirm the current details on the official program page before relying on them.
Where to start
The official starting point is Innovation Canada’s free Business Benefits Finder, which returns a tailored list of the 1,500+ federal, provincial and territorial supports you may qualify for and can filter to programs currently accepting applications. Important: these are programs a business applies for directly with the government agency, bank or cluster that runs them. dgm is an independent AI-integration agency — not a registered, approved or official deliverer of any program here. dgm can help assess fit and scope an AI project, but government money does not flow through dgm.
Where dgm fits
dgm is an independent integration partner that helps Canadian businesses adopt osFoundry — scoping a first use case, handling the build, and connecting AI to the systems you already run. dgm can help you scope the AI project that a program would fund — but you apply to the program directly. dgm is independent of osFoundry’s maker (OS LLC) and has no completed client integrations yet, so everything described here is a service offered, not a past result. If you want to scope a practical first project, dgm can help you map it out.