Who can apply

Applicants

Your organization must be one of the following:

• not-for-profit organizations
• for-profit organizations with up to 99 full-time equivalent employees
• municipal governments
• Indigenous organizations
• territorial governments
• organizations that provide transitional, temporary or emergency housing
• Early Learning and Child Care centres (ELCC). ELCC centres situated in or on public school property will be required to demonstrate that the proposed project activity is exclusively for the use of the child care centre/program
• Indigenous ELCCs, ESDC recognizes that not all Indigenous ELCC centres (including those on reserves, operating in Inuit communities, or operated by Self-Governing First Nations or Modern Treaty Holders) are issued a registration or licensing number

Ineligible applicants

Your organization is ineligible if it is one of the following:

• federal and provincial governments
• public schools (primary and secondary), including organizations submitting proposals for projects that would take place on publicly funded school property with the exception of registered and/or licensed Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) centres located on public school property and when the proposed activity is solely for the use of the childcare centre/program
• public health care facilities, including projects that take place on public health care property
• home-based childcare centres
• crown corporations and entities that are controlled by the federal or a provincial government or on land owned by the federal or a provincial government
• long-term care facilities not specifically serving persons with disabilities
• residential housing organizations such as condo boards and co-op boards - this does not include transitional housing for persons with disabilities or for activities in the common spaces of housing exclusive to persons with disabilities

Project activities

Successful projects under this CFP will provide funding to eligible organizations that will contribute to increasing access to programs, services and support targeted for persons with disabilities by improving accessibility barriers and/or safety concerns in Canadian communities and workplaces through:

• renovation, construction, and retrofit activities
• the purchase of accessible equipment/devices
• the provision of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and systems so long as they meet the following criteria:
  • the project/activities enable access to programming and/or services for multiple persons with disabilities (i.e., cannot be for a single user)
  • the project/activities enable persons with disabilities to maintain or gain employment so long as the accessibility features are not specific or personalized for one individual and are thereby transferrable to other persons with disabilities

The items funded under EAF remain the property of the funding recipient and are not transferrable to the user on a permanent basis.

Projects must be ready to start as early as Fall 2024 and must be completed within a 2-year timeframe.

Please note that the Department will not pay or reimburse funding for any activities that take place before you have a signed agreement with ESDC.

Ineligible projects/activities include, but are not limited to

• Retrofit of motor vehicles
• Construction, renovation or retrofit activities that aim to decorate or improve the esthetics of a building or its surroundings, or
• Construction, renovation or retrofit activities for personal use

Determining cost based on project activities category

Costs for all project activities (flat rate and non-flat rate activities) must be entered into the EAF small projects calculator. Every applicant must fill this out. You must enter the total amount of requested funding from the EAF small projects calculator when prompted in the application in the online portal.

It is important to note that unexpected costs are frequent in construction projects. It is recommended that you have a contingency budget of approximately 20% of the total project cost to offset any additional costs that may arise. Contingency is not an eligible project cost for EAF funding.

In the EAF small projects calculator, project activities can fall under 1 of the 2 categories (or a combination of the 2):

Leveraging requirement

The leveraging requirement is dependent on the organization type and is either 0% for exempt organizations or 25% of the funding request for all other applicants. All leveraging is in the form of cash only and proof of leveraging will only be required at time of signing an agreement.