What Happened to CDAP (And What Canadian Small Businesses Can Get Instead)

If you came here looking for the Canada Digital Adoption Program, I will save you some time: it is finished. CDAP stopped taking new applicants in 2024, wound down through 2025, and as of March 2026 only a restricted group of already-approved businesses can still draw on funding. If you were not already in, you cannot get in.

I am leaving this page up because people are still searching for it, and a lot of what is written about CDAP online has not caught up. Here is the current picture.

What replaced CDAP federally?

BDC launched a program called LIFT in April 2026, a $500 million initiative aimed at helping Canadian businesses invest in AI, automation, cybersecurity and general technology upgrades. It lends between $25,000 and $5 million at preferential rates, roughly 2.25% to 4% on approved credit, over terms up to eight years, with principal postponement available up to 24 months.

Now the part most articles skip. LIFT is a loan, not a grant. You pay it back. And the digital transformation stream requires a minimum of $1 million in annual revenue, with the equipment and automation stream starting at $5 million.

If you run a shop on Front Street or a two-truck contracting business, that is not you. CDAP handed small businesses a grant. LIFT lends money to mid-sized companies. They are not the same kind of program, and it is worth being clear about that rather than pointing you at an application you will not qualify for.

Is there still a grant for small business websites in Ontario?

Digital Main Street is the more realistic option for most businesses around here, and it is still running with periodic intake windows. It offers a Digital Transformation Grant of up to $2,500 to help small businesses adopt digital tools.

To qualify you generally need a permanent bricks-and-mortar location in Ontario, between 1 and 50 employees, commercial property tax, and to be open to the public for onsite purchases.

The money can go toward website development or redesign, digital marketing, software, digital training, and hardware up to $1,000.

That last list is worth reading twice, because a website rebuild is an eligible cost. For a lot of small businesses the grant covers a meaningful share of getting properly set up online.

I am a registered vendor with Digital Main Street, so if you go that route I can be part of how the money gets spent. I would rather tell you the program exists than have you not find it.

What if you do not qualify for either?

Plenty of businesses I work with do not. Service-area businesses without a storefront often fall outside the Digital Main Street bricks-and-mortar rule, and they are nowhere near LIFT's revenue floor.

If that is you, the honest answer is that the absence of a grant is rarely what is holding a business back online. Most of what actually moves the needle costs very little: a Google Business Profile that is filled out properly, a website that loads on a phone and says what you do, and a steady trickle of reviews. None of that needs a funding program.

A caveat worth stating

Government program terms change, and they change without much announcement. Everything above reflects what I could confirm in August 2026. Before you build a plan around any of it, check the current terms directly with the program. I am not a grant consultant, and I would rather you verify than take my word for a deadline.