CanExport Community Investments: Applicant’s guide

Program overview

The CanExport Community Investments program provides financial support to communities for their foreign direct investment (FDI) initiatives and activities. The funding helps communities seeking to improve their capacity to attract, retain and expand FDI in order to create jobs for Canadians, support innovation and increase exports through specific types of activities.

We define an investor as:

an international business establishing or expanding operations in Canada
someone with a significant say in the management of local operations (not simply voting through shares and not someone who simply injects funds)

The program does not fund initiatives related to mergers and acquisitions, investments from other parts of Canada, trade or export.

The program supports non-profit partnerships at the local community level.

How the program works:

You can be reimbursed for up to 50% of the cost of eligible activities
You can receive between $3,000 and $500,000 in funding
You don’t need to repay the grants you receive
Funding agreements are for a one-year period, from April 1 to March 31
If you get other federal government support, total federal support cannot be more than 50%

Are you eligible?

You can apply if you are:

a Canadian community or community-level organization
a non-profit, locally based Canadian organization

You must also meet these criteria:

have a mandate to attract, expand, or retain greenfield FDI.
be incorporated (a legal entity)
be able to enter into legally binding agreements.

We may support giving funding to a community or not-for-profit organization acting as a third party or go-between for a number of eligible communities.

We do not fund departments, agencies, Crown corporations and other federal or provincial organizations.

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Eligible activities

The program supports activities that will help you attract, expand, or retain greenfield foreign direct investment, such as:

developing marketing tools aimed at foreign investors
getting specific foreign direct investment training
identifying or coordinating with potential investors
- developing and putting in place multi-year strategies to attract and retain international investment

We do not fund initiatives related to mergers and acquisitions, investments from other parts of Canada, trade or export.

Expenses we cover

We cover specific expenses for eligible activities. Please review the following table of expenses that we do and don’t cover before you complete your application form. The table is organized by type of activity.

Expenses that we do and don’t cover

Activity	Expenses that we cover	Expenses that we don’t cover
Consultants are expected to have specific expertise outside of what your community or organization would normally have. An intern should be a graduate student, an undergraduate in their last year of studies or a recent graduate (in the last 3 years). The intern’s mandate must be FDI specific, with a contract of up to 1 program calendar year and a salary of up to $50,000 (we cover 50%, or up to $25,000). Travel (transportation): If you choose to use bus, car or train to travel to an event instead of flying, the claimed expense cannot be more than what an equivalent straight route economy class airfare would be expected to cost. Travel (daily allowance): $500 per day incurred by travellers for accommodation, meals and incidentals; we will reimburse applicants 50% of the daily allowance. Travel (airfare): We cover only the cost of return economy class airfare for the straight route. In the application, you are expected to provide estimates for economy airfare that are reasonable, economical and take into account advance booking, where possible.
Doing strategic planning and analysis for foreign direct investment (FDI)	research to identify targets, do comparative competitive analysis, develop business cases, prepare business retention and expansion studies, etc. collecting community and economic data for investment profiles, etc. developing strategic FDI plans, doing community consultations translating documents or website content into either of Canada’s official languages or foreign languages consultant fees¹ and intern salary²	research activities that are not linked to attracting, retaining and expanding investment collection or purchase of statistical data that is not linked to attracting, retaining or expanding investment
Developing FDI tools and materials	design and layout of promotional material (print or electronic) software customization (but not the cost of software license or off-the-shelf add-on modules) website development or a major redesign, adding significant architecture and functionality translation of documents or website content into either one of Canada’s official languages or foreign languages site selection criteria/ certification production of FDI promotional videos consultant fees¹ and intern salary²	regular website maintenance and updating web content, site hosting, software licensing corporate logo design, costs of printing, pressing CDs or DVDs design and layout of non-investment ads (such as promoting tourism), cost of ad placement in any media branding Note: political representatives are not allowed in recorded videos.
Giving FDI training	training as part of the community’s investment attraction and retention strategy for employees of the community (or economic development agency) at a different level of expertise, including FDI customized training travel costs (only for economic development staff and only in association with an investment training program), including: transportation³ airport departure taxes, fees and insurance a daily allowance⁴, which includes accommodation, meals and incidentals Note: when a low ratio of staff asks for customized training, we encourage you to work with regional partners.	consultants hired to facilitate a session (moderator/ facilitator) conferences and forums
Generating FDI leads and meetings with potential investors	meeting room rental abroad travel costs for up to 2 employees of your organization per trip (economy fares and a daily allowance)⁴ talent attraction mission (includes meeting rooms, material and data collection) research target companies translation of documents or website content into either of Canada’s official languages or foreign languages FDI attraction seminar costs to develop targeted cases for follow-up with potential investors consultant fees¹ and intern salary²	logistics travel costs incurred by partners or consultants travel costs incurred by potential investors

Activities and expenses we don’t cover

We do not fund the following types of expenses. Please review this list carefully before completing your application.

Activity	Expenses we don’t cover
Consultants	consultant or contractor fees where there are signs of an employer-employee relationship (for example, the contractor or consultant shares your office space, has business cards from your organization, has a title of responsibility within your organization, or has a presence on your website) Note: A contractor or consultant cannot represent an organization that is receiving CanExport Community Investments funding
Taxes	Goods and services tax (GST) Province-specific tax (PST) Harmonized sales tax (HST) Value-added tax (VAT) or taxes applied by foreign governments
Trade show, conference or forum participation	registration fees at international trade shows or conferences (in Canada and abroad) booth design, purchase, assembly and shipping design of promotional material specifically for a trade show overhead costs, such as a pre-show mailing stationery long-distance phone calls consultant costs for organizing outgoing missions (including training participants) cost of developing an advertisement (design and layout) for show specific publications
Hospitality	cost of meals or alcohol, lodging, clothing and uniforms, and all giveaways
Activities or projects related to attracting infrastructure for tourism and motion picture industries	for example, to develop ski resorts, theme parks or film production facilities
Capital costs	infrastructure development capital expenditures to acquire or enhance assets software licenses electronics (computers, digital cameras, etc.) demonstration aids These include the direct costs of acquisition, construction, expansion, modification, conversion, transportation, installation and insurance (during construction) of fixed assets, as well as the cost of licensing and franchising fees
Overhead and operating costs	postage, including postage for direct mail campaigns phone office space rental photocopying salaries and benefits of personnel
Miscellaneous	activities to attract investment from inside Canada costs incurred before your application is approved activities for which one or more partners expect to receive compensation through a commission, a finder’s fee, etc. promotion activities related to properties or business investment in which one or more partners receives a personal or corporate financial gain giveaways (gifts, concert tickets, logo items, mugs, pens, etc.)

How we evaluate your application

CanExport Community Investments is a competitive program. The Adjudication Committees led by Global Affairs Canada, one for each region, approve and evaluate all applications. Each committee includes a mix of public sector participants, including representatives from the provincial government and regional development agencies.

We assess applications using the following criteria and questions:

Criteria 1: Strategy

Is the application consistent with the Canadian FDI attraction objectives including, FDI sectors and markets?
How well does the project fit into the community's strategic economic development plan?
How well does the long-term planning principles apply to this project?
Is there a business retention and expansion (BR&E) program in place in the applicant's jurisdiction?
How well does the applicant demonstrate the value of the project to the community?

Criteria 2: Project components

To what extent are the project components consistent with the program’s FDI sectors and markets?
How well do the project components support the applicant's FDI strategy?
Is there sufficient focus on the activities?
Is the budget consistent with the costs for these types of activities?
Has the applicant provided relevant documentation to support the request?

Criteria 3: Performance measures

How would you rank the proposed project and their expected outputs/outcomes?
How well does the application provide valid anticipated outcomes: what will be measured, how these will be measured and which performance indicators will be tracked?
Do the identified measures suit the overall project?
Would the community be able to demonstrate success or readjust its strategy based on the measures identified?

Criteria 4: Capacity

Has the community identified an internal lead on the project?
Does the community have the matching dollars to complete the project?
Is the applicant solely responsible for completing the project, or is there a joint model for governing the project?
Is the applicant likely to use the funding requested?
Are there sufficient human resources and a credible governance structure in place to maintain and deliver project reports and documentation?

Criteria 5: Workplan

Has the community established reasonable timelines, a list of key milestones, and identified key deliverables?
Is a project manager designated and the proper signing authority in place on the application?

Criteria 6: Partnerships

Is the community working with other organizations on its FDI strategy?
Is the community incorporating other sources of matching funds into its application?
Does the community understand the value of partnering on marketing initiatives?
Is the community part of a larger network of organizations or does it represent a regional approach to investment marketing?

Other factors

What is the applicant's recent history of utilizing the program?

How to apply

To register and apply, access the CanExport Communities portal. For a step-by-step guide on how to register your organization consult the tutorial on YouTube.

Registering your organization

For more details on what you’ll need on hand to complete your registration, consult the registration information checklist. It is not possible to save your work until the full completion of the registration process. Your session will time out within 30 minutes of inactivity.

To register you must:

Access the CanExport Communities portal and select “Login/Registration”
Choose a secured sign-in method
After successful login, please continue to the dashboard (note that it may take 10 seconds or more to retrieve your information)
Upon your first visit, you will be prompted to enter your email address and register your organization
It may take a few days for your registration to be confirmed, but we will contact you once your registration is complete

Filling out the application form and submitting an application package

Please submit your application as early as possible. To fill out and submit the application form you must:

Access the CanExport Communities portal
Choose a secured sign-in method
Log into the portal and continue to the dashboard
Start a new proposal
Follow the instructions to fill out the 10-step online form (remember to save often and use the save draft button if you want to complete it at a later date) and then submit your application

The portal can’t accept applications after the close of the call. You must submit your application through the CanExport Communities portal; mailed, emailed or faxed applications will not be accepted.

After you apply

The adjudication process takes place once per year, after the conclusion of the application period. Our team will contact you with the results. Successful applicants will be notified initially by email, when the project is approved. A second email will be sent that includes the Grant Agreement outlining the approved activities.

Contact us

If you have questions that this guide does not answer, please contact: communities.communautes@international.gc.ca

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Date Modified:: 2023-08-02

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