Who can apply
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Eligibility
Through this process, ESDC will fund “initial recipients” that will redistribute the contributions funding to the “ultimate recipients”, the PSWs, as retirement savings incentives.
Eligible initial recipients
Eligible applicants also defined as initial recipients that can apply for funding are located in Canada and are:
- not-for-profit organizations
- for-profit organizationsFootnote 1
- unions
- boards of trade
- industry association
- cooperatives
- indigenous organizations, including band councils, tribal councils, and self government entities; and
- 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations
Ineligible initial recipients
- Individuals
- Sole proprietorships
- Partnerships of individuals
- Provincial, territorial or municipal governments and agencies; and
- Entities that are owned by governments or agencies, that are staffed in majority by public servants or individuals appointed by a public body, or that received in 2023 or expect to receive in 2024, 2025, 2026 or 2027 over half their funding from federal, provincial, territorial or municipal governments or related agencies
Note: entities subject to Quebec's Act Respecting the Ministère du Conseil exécutif (M-30) that requires most public organizations to receive provincial government authorization prior to signing a funding agreement with the federal government are not eligible for the program
Eligible ultimate recipients
Ultimate recipients must be Personal Support Workers (PSWs) as defined in the program Glossary.
Eligible cost
Eligible expenditures of initial recipients include:
- incentives provided to ultimate recipients
- subject to a cap on costs of 15% of contributions for not-for-profit organizations and 8% for for-profit organizations:
- salaries,wages and mandatory employment-related costs and benefits paid to staff for the hours working directly on the project
- professional fees related to project activities, such as consultants, audit, technical expertise, facilitation, human resources, translation, and legal costs
- advertising and communication costs
- other reasonable administrative costs incurred for the purpose of administering the pilot project
Eligible activities
The eligible activities of the initial recipients are:
- advertising the project
- enrolling PSWs to participate in the project
- providing incentives to PSWs and making contributions to their tax-assisted savings vehicles
- managing the tax-assisted savings vehicles
- tracking and reporting the performance measurement data
How we assess your application
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Step 1: Screening for eligibility
We will screen for eligibility based on whether:
- the application (EMP5688) is received by the deadline: January 24, 2025, at 3:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (EST)
- the application is complete
- the organization is eligible
- the requested funding is not below $1,000,000 and doesn't exceed $30,000,000
- the project must operate and flow funds to PSWs for 24 months over the 2026 and 2027 calendar years
- your proposal defines:
- the structure and parameters of the incentive
- the administration of the pilot project
- the ultimate recipients targeted by the pilot project
- information on how your organization will meet the requirement of providing all services and communications materials in both official languages
We may refuse applications that are incomplete or contain errors
We will contact you to request any mandatory information if it is missing from your application. We will do this before we determine if your application is eligible. If you receive such a request, you must respond within 5 business days of the date we sent the request. If you do not respond before the deadline, we will assess your application with the information on file.
Things that may impact your eligibility
Your past performance or issues of default in projects with ESDC may impact the eligibility of your application.
When determining the eligibility of your application, ESDC may review information in the public domain including, but not limited to, materials on your website and media articles. Please provide all required information in your application. Do not provide links to websites to answer application questions, except for Question 41 (Organizational capacity), where you are requested to provide your organization's website address as part of your answer.
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Step 2: Assessing main criteria
The assessments of the pilots will prioritize:
- maximizing the number of PSWs participating in the program
- capacity and track record of the initial recipient and its linkages to the proposed target population of ultimate recipients; and
- incentive design parameters that will promote savings for the long-term
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