Regional Tariff Response Initiative
Ongoing program
Accepting applications
The Program
Overview
Part of REGI
- The Regional Tariff Response Initiative (RTRI) is a temporary measure. It targets manufacturing SMEs manufacturing SMEs adversely impacted by the economic context caused by tariffs, and complements other federal, provincial, and territorial tariff support programs.
- The RTRI was recently extended to continue to help manufacturing SMEs adapt to a changing economic environment through investments that promote market diversification and improved productivity.
Eligible clients
To be eligible, a business must:
- Be a manufacturing SME with fewer than 500 employees.
- Be located and operate in Quebec.
- Be adversely impacted by the economic context (loss of revenue, rising costs, reduced profitability) and be able to demonstrate this in concrete terms.
- Have a structuring project aimed at improving competitiveness and diversifying markets. A
structuring project refers to structuring investments that bring about a significant and lasting
transformation of the business’s activities in order to reduce its exposure to the impacts of
tariff measures and strengthen its competitiveness. For example:
- Improving the company’s competitiveness by boosting its productivity and reducing its costs;
- Strengthening its position within its value chains;
- Supporting the diversification of its markets.
- Have been in business for at least three years.
- Have generated revenues of $2 million or more during the last completed fiscal year.
- Have been viable before the imposition of tariffs by the United States or China, that is before March 21, 2025. This must be demonstrated by the SME's financial statements.
Any application that does not meet the above eligibility criteria will be automatically rejected.
Eligible activities
The RTRI supports manufacturing SMEs adversely impacted by the economic context caused by tariffs by enabling the completion of structuring projects in the following ways:
- By helping companies undertake projects aimed at boosting productivity, improving competitiveness, and reducing costs to mitigate the effects of tariffs.
- By enabling greater business resilience through market diversification.
Eligible activities include, but are not limited to:
- The acquisition of equipment, digitization, automation, and the acquisition or adaptation of technologies to improve productivity and competitiveness.
- Implementing market diversification strategies, including market diagnosis, development and expansion activities (such as participation in trade missions and prospecting visits), to find new customers and reduce vulnerability to tariffs.
- Establishing strategic partnerships, optimizing supply chains, and complying with standards to access markets or increase sales.
- A technology showcase and demonstration.
Eligible costs
- Costs that are essential to the project and directly related to the activities listed above.
- Costs may be eligible retroactively for up to 12 months prior to receipt of the signed application, which must be submitted no earlier than 21 March 2025. The need for financial assistance must be justified for these costs.
Funding application
Important
- A business may only receive non-repayable funding under the IRRT scheme once.
- A business may not combine non-repayable funding with repayable funding for the same project.
- CED will process applications on an ongoing basis until the budget allocation has been fully utilised. Submit your application as soon as possible!
Financial assistance
- For structuring investment projects aimed at boosting productivity and diversifying markets: non-repayable contribution of up to $1 million.
- For projects aimed solely at market diversification: non-repayable contribution of up to $300,000.
- For major structuring investment projects: repayable contribution of over $1 million.
Assistance rate
- The maximum assistance rate is 50% for projects receiving a non-repayable contribution..
- The maximum assistance rate is 75% for projects receiving a repayable contribution.
- The minimum amount of assistance is $100,000.
Submitting a funding application
- CED accepts funding applications under RTRI.
- Submit a financial assistance application
- Questions? Contact us
Additional information
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Prioritization criteria
Please note that projects meeting the criteria below will be given priority by CED:
- The structuring nature of the project, i.e. its focus on improving the company’s competitiveness and diversifying its markets.
- The extent of the impact on the SME due to the economic context (of turnover derived from direct or indirect exports, proportion of inputs affected by customs duties, extent of the rise in production costs, loss of revenue and loss of profitability).
- Whether the business belongs to sectors significantly affected by tariffs, including the steel, automotive, copper, aluminum, wood processing and food processing sectors.
- The business’s economic significance within the regional/sectoral economy (number of jobs, turnover, strategic supplier, major employer in a region).
- Reasonable costs and relevance of the financial package.
- Ability to deliver the project in the short term.
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Ineligible costs
All costs that are not essential and not directly related to the project, as well as:
- Debt refinancing
- The purchase of assets at a price that exceeds fair market value
- Amortization costs
- Goodwill
- The purchase of land