The Harper Government, through the Investing in Business Growth and Productivity Initiative under FedDev Ontario, is providing the Yves Landry Foundation (YLF) with up to $9 million to continue delivering its Achieving Innovation and Manufacturing Excellence (AIME) Global initiative.
This builds on a previous Government of Canada investment of $6 million for YLF to create and deliver AIME Global in southern Ontario, which benefitted 177 manufacturers. These businesses have created and retained hundreds of jobs, commercialized new products, processes and services, as well as increased international sales.
YLF was established by leaders in Canada's manufacturing and business sectors in 1998 to advance technological education and skills training to resolve the skilled labour and technical professional shortages facing Canadian industry.
AIME Global supports southern Ontario manufacturers to undertake training activities such as:
the development of new engineering skills, training in the use of new software, hardware or other tools necessary to support innovation; and training to adopt and adapt new technologies, new manufacturing methods or any other business area that will make a southern Ontario manufacturing company more competitive in the global marketplace.
AIME Global provides between 25 to 50 percent of training costs up to a maximum of $50,000 per project. Each business is required to provide at least the matching amount of funds towards the completion of the project.
YLF will support approximately 200 manufacturers through this initiative, who will create up to 1,100 new manufacturing jobs, maintain more than 1,000 manufacturing jobs and train more than 6,900 workers. The Government of Canada's investment is expected to leverage up to $16 million from southern Ontario manufacturers.
Eligibility requirements and further details will be available on December 1, 2014, on the YLF AIME Global initiative website.
The Investing in Business Growth and Productivity (IBGP) initiative focuses on established businesses that have potential to be global players. It also leverages the expertise of not-for-profit organizations to strengthen the productivity and global competitiveness of southern Ontario businesses.
Funding is available to:
- Grow established businesses through facility expansion or improvements;
- Increase business adoption of new technologies and processes to improve productivity; and
- Increase business capacity to participate in global markets, diversify markets and integrate in global value chains.
Applications are being accepted and assessed on an ongoing basis. Eligibility requirements and further details are available on the FedDev Ontario website (www.FedDevOntario.gc.ca/IBGP).
