Prepared by Inflection Venture Partners · Embedded Growth Capital Advisory
Grants, Loans & IRAP Claims
📋 Recap
The Alberta Export Expansion Program went from a cold question to a live application in three days. The application is set up in the portal and stays open for roughly a year, so further US events can be appended to it rather than filed separately.
The numbers on it: $400 per day for the first traveller, $200 per day for the second, and up to $1,000 on event registration, covering out-of-Canada travel only. CanExport is closed for this cycle, so this is the route.
We put a clear answer on the senior developer question: there are no standalone hiring grants available right now — the Alberta Innovates stream is closed with no replacement announced. The better route is to fold the hire into the Alberta Innovates / Home Depot R&D project budget, where the developer builds the automated customer-engagement tool and CRM. The two interns at roughly $25,000, offset by about $15,000 through Tech Nation, go in alongside.
The entity question is resolved cleanly: Firefly Solar keeps the employee on payroll and bills Firefly HVAC, which avoids the grant complications that a direct transfer would create.
The funding stack mechanics are now settled. If BSP and Alberta Innovates both land, BSP covers 50% and Alberta Innovates the other 50%, and the developer is fully funded — SR&ED would not then apply to grant-covered salary, which is the better outcome, not a loss. The realistic case is one or the other: 50% grant-covered with the remaining 50% claimable through SR&ED at roughly 35% back.
PrairiesCan RAII is back on the table. PrairiesCan confirmed to us directly that RAII expressions of interest can be filed even where a BSP application is under review. We had recommended against RAII in September on the basis that the one role was largely IRAP-funded; with the blocker removed and the Alberta Innovates project taking shape, it is worth re-filing the existing expression of interest.
The Thin Air Labs matter resolved in your favour. The success fee on the IRAP grant has been withdrawn — the dated correspondence record and the proof of the missed deadline did the work.
The NRC IRAP site visit is confirmed for October 19, with Robert presenting against the $100,000 spend.
🔭 Outlook
Immediately — we need the replacement name for the STEP / Canada Green Corps wage subsidy (roughly $24,000). The plan is to have the program revise the application in queue rather than restart it, but nothing moves until the person is named and verifies their own details by email.
This week — an introductory conversation with Chris. Thanks for setting it up; we are proposing times now.
~October 15 — September payroll across to us, and we process IRAP Claim 4.
October 19 — Moise on site for the IRAP show-and-tell.
Next two weeks — we draft the Alberta Innovates project scope around the Home Depot automation tool, with the senior developer, the two interns and partial founder time in the budget, and bring it to you for review.
PrairiesCan BSP — a timeline correction worth flagging. The September 14 expression of interest under PC0016714 at a $4,750,000 ask is still in review. The expression of interest is not the full application: the expected next step is an invitation to submit a full proposal, likely due mid-November, with a further thirty to sixty days to a final decision after that. We have chased PrairiesCan directly for a status read.
October — re-file the PrairiesCan RAII expression of interest now the blocker is removed.
November — after RE+ in Vegas, receipts and attendance go into the AEEP application with one or two attending staff declared, then it submits.
We still owe you the Red Seal and master-electrician eligibility read under Alberta Jobs Now (up to $10,000 per staff member and $100,000 per company per year), and a joint view on the ESDC Sectoral Workforce Innovation Fund consortium — up to $10,000,000 per project at up to 75% of costs over up to thirty-six months, on rolling intake.
📝 Notes
The 14 Wing Greenwood solar microgrid tender in Nova Scotia ($15,000,000+) is with Mark, and the weekly automated RFP watch on data-centre solar requirements continues in the background.