Program Supports Companies Involved in Steel/Aluminum Supply Chains

The Regional Economic Growth through Innovation Steel and Aluminum Initiative (ISAI) offers grants of up to 45% to a maximum of $1 million to companies whose steel and/or aluminum expenditures are equal to or greater than 20% of total input costs. Applicants must have between 10-499 employees and be requesting at least $150,000 from the program to participate. Eligible activities may include:

• Productivity Improvements: acquiring, adapting, adopting new technologies, and/or processes; process re-engineering; improving manufacturing capacity.
• Business Scale-Up: market development/expansion; diagnostics; adopting best management practices, processes, and systems; business opportunity development.
• Technology Commercialization: late stage product development geared toward market diversification and growth, such as technology showcasing and technology demonstration.

All costs must be reasonable and directly related to eligible project activities. Eligible costs include, but are not limited to:

• Cost of labour (e.g. wages and benefits);
• Capital costs (e.g. purchase of machinery, equipment);
• Operating costs that are directly related to the project (e.g. management fees)- up to 20 percent of the total project cost;
• Professional, advisory and technical services;
• Costs related to intellectual property;
• Technological development and commercial demonstrations;
• Subcontracting costs;
• Production and distribution of promotional material and management tools; and
• Maintenance costs.

Ineligible costs include, but are not limited to:

• Costs incurred prior to application submission date;
• Basic and applied research;
• Land and buildings acquisition;
• Goodwill;
• Entertainment expenses;
• Salary bonuses and dividend payments;
• Allowance for interest on invested capital, bonds, debentures, and other debts;
• Losses on investments, bad debts and associated expenses, other projects and contracts;
• Refinancing of existing debts;
• Amortization or depreciation of assets;
• Federal and provincial income taxes, GST (recoverable portion), taxes or surtaxes on excess profit;
• Provisions for contingencies;
• Lobbying activities or commissions paid to consultants to secure funding.

All project activities must be completed by March 31, 2020. Only one application per firm is permitted under the Initiative. Total government assistance, from all sources (federal, provincial, municipal including SR&ED), will be limited to 75 percent of eligible costs. Total program budget is $100 million. Priority will be given to applications received from March 11, 2019, to April 8, 2019.