The CDAP grant is closed to new applicants. Intake for the Boost Your Business Technology stream ended on February 19, 2024, and no relaunch has been announced for either stream as of 2026. If you signed a grant agreement before that cutoff, you likely still have access to your funds and the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) loan tied to it.
Here’s the quick math on what the Canada Digital Adoption Program offered while it ran:
- Grow Your Business Online: up to $2,400 as a microgrant for e-commerce tools
- Boost Your Business Technology: up to $15,000 covering 90% of advisory costs to build a digital adoption plan
- BDC loan: up to $100,000, at 0% interest for the first year, available to businesses with an approved plan
Quick check: If you have a signed agreement, verify its status directly with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) or BDC before assuming anything has lapsed.
Key Takeaways
The CDAP grant program is closed to new applicants as of 2026, but businesses with signed agreements from before February 19, 2024 retain access to funding and the BDC loan.
| Point | Details |
|---|---|
| Intake is closed | No new CDAP applications are accepted for either stream as of 2026; no relaunch date is confirmed. |
| Existing agreements still count | Signed, unexpired grant agreements remain valid, and BDC continues processing related loans. |
| Grant paid the plan, not the build | The Boost stream reimbursed 90% of advisory costs up to $15,000; implementation required the separate BDC loan. |
| Deadlines were strict | Agreements carried firm windows for accepting terms and submitting plans, with no automatic extensions. |
| Alternatives exist | Provincial digital adoption grants, regional development funding, and implementation-focused agencies fill the gap CDAP left. |
Table of Contents
- What Was the CDAP Grant Program Designed to Do?
- Would You Have Qualified for CDAP?
- How Did the Money and the Loan Actually Work?
- Is CDAP Still Open, and What Happens to Existing Agreements?
- What Should You Do Right Now to Check Your Status?
- Where Else Can You Find Digital Funding in 2026?
- How Can an Ontario Agency Help You Build What CDAP Would Have Funded?
- What This Program’s Rise and Fall Actually Teaches Small Business Owners
- Sources
- FAQ
What Was the CDAP Grant Program Designed to Do?
The Canada Digital Adoption Program launched with a $4 billion federal commitment announced in Budget 2021, split into two distinct streams that solved different problems for different sizes of business.
Grow Your Business Online targeted smaller operations that just needed to get selling online. The microgrant covered costs like setting up an online store, adding e-commerce payment processing, or improving a basic website. No advisor was required for this stream, and the money moved fast.
Boost Your Business Technology was built for businesses ready to make a bigger digital leap. It funded a formal Digital Adoption Plan created with an approved CDAP digital advisor, then reimbursed 90% of that advisory cost up to $15,000. The grant itself never paid for the actual implementation, that’s what the BDC loan was for. Businesses got the plan funded through the grant, then borrowed to build it.
Would You Have Qualified for CDAP?
Eligibility hinged on a handful of specific thresholds. Here’s how the two streams broke down:
- Grow Your Business Online required a business generating at least $30,000 in annual revenue, registered and operating in Canada.
- Boost Your Business Technology generally targeted small and mid-sized businesses with enough revenue and full-time staff to justify a formal digital plan, though the exact revenue and FTE bands varied by applicant type.
- Business structure mattered too. Both incorporated companies and sole proprietors could apply, but non-profits and certain public-sector entities were excluded.
- The most common mistake business owners made was assuming the grant would fund implementation. It didn’t. It funded the plan; the loan funded the build.
- Missing the advisor step sank a lot of Boost stream applications. You had to work with a registered CDAP advisor, not just any consultant.
How Did the Money and the Loan Actually Work?
The financial mechanics of CDAP were more layered than most business owners expected going in.
For the Boost stream, the government reimbursed 90% of advisory fees up to a $15,000 cap, meaning a business paying $16,700 for a digital adoption plan got the full $15,000 back. Anything above that ceiling came out of pocket. The Grow stream microgrant topped out at $2,400 and applied only to specific e-commerce and website costs, not general operating expenses.
- Boost advisory reimbursement: 90% of costs, capped at $15,000
- Grow microgrant: up to $2,400 for online sales tools
- BDC loan: up to $100,000, 0% interest in year one, repaid over a multi-year term
- Loan eligibility tied directly to having a signed, approved CDAP plan
The BDC loan wasn’t automatic. You needed the approved Digital Adoption Plan in hand first, then applied separately through BDC with its own credit review. Grant agreements also carried firm windows, typically six months to accept terms and nine months to submit the finished plan, with no automatic extensions if you missed either deadline.
Is CDAP Still Open, and What Happens to Existing Agreements?
Program status breaks down cleanly by stream and by timing. The Boost Your Business Technology intake closed on February 19, 2024, fully subscribed after supporting more than 53,000 SMEs with needs assessments and disbursing over 15,000 grant claims worth more than $229 million. As of mid-2026, neither stream shows an active public intake, and no relaunch date has been confirmed by ISED.
That doesn’t mean everyone’s shut out.
Want this working in your business. Without doing it yourself?
Start a Project →- If you signed your grant agreement before the cutoff, it remains valid, and ISED continues honoring it.
- BDC keeps processing loan applications tied to approved, unexpired CDAP plans.
- New applicants, regardless of how strong their project is, currently have no CDAP intake to apply to.
- The safest move is checking ISED’s official CDAP pages directly rather than relying on secondhand summaries, since program pages get updated without much fanfare.
What Should You Do Right Now to Check Your Status?
If you’re not sure where you stand, work through this in order rather than guessing.
- Find your original grant agreement email and confirm the exact date it was signed. Anything before February 19, 2024 for Boost likely remains active.
- Log into the CDAP portal to check whether your plan and invoices were submitted and accepted.
- Contact your registered advisor if you haven’t finalized your Digital Adoption Plan yet, since unfinished plans risk forfeiting the grant.
- Apply to BDC for the 0% loan once your plan is approved, since the loan window is separate from the grant deadline.
- If you missed intake entirely, put together a one-page project summary covering scope, budget, timeline, and expected results. It’s the fastest way to get a quote from an agency or to move quickly if the program ever reopens.
Pro Tip: Keep every invoice tied to your CDAP plan in one folder, dated and labeled. Reimbursement and audit reviews move faster when documentation is already organized rather than assembled after the fact.
Where Else Can You Find Digital Funding in 2026?
CDAP closing doesn’t mean funding dried up everywhere. Several provinces run their own digital adoption grants aimed at similar goals, e-commerce setup, point-of-sale upgrades, cybersecurity basics, and regional economic development agencies often fund technology projects as part of broader small-business support packages. Sector-specific wage subsidies can also offset the cost of hiring someone to manage a digital rollout.
- Provincial digital adoption or productivity grants (availability and amounts vary by province)
- Regional economic development agency funding tied to technology upgrades
- Sector-specific wage subsidy programs that offset staffing costs during implementation
- Combining a smaller grant with a private loan or agency financing plan to cover the full project
Match the program to your project size first. A $3,000 website refresh doesn’t need the same funding route as a $40,000 CRM overhaul. And whichever program you chase, prioritize advisors who talk in specifics, timelines, deliverables, and measurable outcomes, over ones who hand you a generic strategy deck.
How Can an Ontario Agency Help You Build What CDAP Would Have Funded?
If your CDAP window closed before you got your plan funded, the practical fix is finding someone who can build the project directly instead of waiting for the next grant cycle. Cloudsprout works this way for small and mid-sized businesses across Ontario and Canada, in trades, food service, professional services, and e-commerce.
- Every engagement starts with a free digital audit, the same discovery step a CDAP advisor would have charged for
- All work, website development, SEO, branding, CRM automation, is done in-house with no outsourcing
- Pricing is transparent and month-to-month, with no lock-in contract
- The team has delivered projects for clients like ARC Electrical and DENLOY INC., moving from audit straight to implementation
A digital adoption plan is only useful if someone actually builds what it recommends. The businesses that got the most out of CDAP weren’t the ones with the fanciest plan. They were the ones who had someone lined up to execute it the day the grant cleared.
Cloudsprout runs the same audit, prioritize, build sequence a Boost stream advisor was supposed to follow, minus the nine-month submission window and the advisor waitlist.
What This Program’s Rise and Fall Actually Teaches Small Business Owners
The conventional advice on CDAP treats it like a closed chapter, useful history, nothing more. That undersells what the program’s data actually shows. Over 53,000 businesses got a needs assessment and more than 15,000 walked away with disbursed grant claims. That’s not a failed pilot. It’s a program that ran out of budget faster than demand for digital upgrades did, which tells you the underlying need never went away, only the funding tap did.
Where the conventional take really falls short is the assumption that a “plan” equals progress. Plenty of Boost stream recipients ended up with a polished Digital Adoption Plan and no clear path to actually build it, partly because approved advisors were stretched thin and some plans skewed theoretical rather than operational.
If you’re one of the businesses still sitting on an approved agreement, don’t let the plan gather dust. If you missed intake entirely, stop waiting for a relaunch that has no confirmed date. Build your one-page project summary now, price it out with an implementation partner, and move. The businesses that benefited most from CDAP weren’t the ones with the best-written plan. They were the ones who had someone ready to build it the same week.
Sources
- Government briefing note: Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP)
- ISED — Boost Your Business Technology grant page
- BDC — Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP)
FAQ
What Is a CDAP Grant?
The CDAP grant was federal funding under the Canada Digital Adoption Program that helped small and mid-sized businesses pay for digital adoption plans (Boost stream, up to $15,000) or e-commerce tools (Grow stream, up to $2,400).
Is CDAP Still Available in 2026?
No. Both streams are closed to new applicants as of 2026, though businesses with grant agreements signed before the Boost stream’s February 19, 2024 cutoff retain access to their approved funding.
When Did the CDAP Program End?
The Boost Your Business Technology stream stopped accepting new applications on February 19, 2024, after reaching full subscription; the Grow Your Business Online stream has also shown no active intake since.
What Grants Are Available in Canada Now That CDAP Is Closed?
Provincial digital adoption programs, regional economic development grants, and sector-specific wage subsidies remain active options, alongside financing routes like the BDC loan for businesses with an already-approved CDAP plan.
Can I Still Get the BDC Loan Without a CDAP Grant Agreement?
The 0% BDC loan under CDAP requires an approved Digital Adoption Plan tied to a valid grant agreement, so businesses without a signed agreement from before the cutoff generally cannot access this specific loan product.
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