Grants, Opportunities, Events Update - July 2025
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- Jul 16
- 17 min read
July 2025 update from the Ministry of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation (JEDI)
Events and Engagement Opportunities:
Provincial Response to US Tariffs – Castlegar Event – July 25
Please join Paul Choi, MLA, Parliamentary Secretary for Asia-Pacific Trade for a special event on how the Province of British Columbia is responding to the potential repercussions from American tariffs on Canadian goods.
Date: Friday July 25th, 2025
Time: 2:00 – 4:00 PM
Where: Mercer Celgar Boardroom – The Confluence, 1995-6th Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 2W6
Register by responding HERE!
Come learn about how the Province is responding to the current moment by protecting and advocating for B.C., and how your business can benefit and leverage diversification opportunities going forward. We want to hear from you if your business is facing domestic or international trade barriers or is being directly affected by the increasingly restrictive and unpredictable trading environment.
The event will be an opportunity to hear from the Parliamentary Secretary and discuss:
Implications for B.C. businesses and households,
Measures taken to ensure B.C.’s economic resilience,
Benefits and opportunities available through economic diversification.
Future of WorkBC
Dates: July 3, 2025 to July 31, 2025
Who: The Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction
What: A new model for B.C.’s WorkBC employment services
Where: Province-wide
Why: Gather public input to help shape B.C.’s future WorkBC employment services
How: Online survey, virtual information sessions
WorkBC serves over 100,000 people each year through 102 community-based centres. Through these centres, people access guided, personalized support in-person and virtually. Since the current WorkBC program launched in 2019, the labour market has shifted, and people’s needs and expectations for employment services have evolved. While some people thrive with guided one-to-one support to prepare for, find, and keep a good job, we recognize that other people have different needs. Some people want to go online and access employment services independently, while others need more intensive support to become job ready.
B.C. is working to expand upon the current WorkBC program to offer more choice and tailored support to meet people’s individual needs. This flexible employment service model will support a range of needs, pathways, and employment goals.
We invite your comments through our online survey to help us continue to shape our new system.
Infrastructure Projects Act
The Ministry of Infrastructure is engaging with First Nations, members of the public, and interest-holders such as local governments, business organizations, environmental groups, and the construction sector to support the implementation of the Infrastructure Projects Act (Act). The Act aims to speed up decisions on critical infrastructure projects so communities can get the services they need faster, without reducing environmental standards or compromising the province’s obligations to First Nations. Find more details here: https://engage.gov.bc.ca/infrastructure
Engagement will happen in a series of steps over the summer and fall of 2025 and early spring 2026. As we develop the policies for the new Act we’ll focus on three main topics.
Provincially Significant Projects
Qualified Professional Reliance Model
Coming soon
Expedited Environmental Assessment Process
Coming soon
Program Updates:
Agriculture:
Description: The Buy BC Partnership Program is a fundamental component of Buy BC programming that provides up to $2 million in cost-shared funding annually to local producers, processors, and associations to support their ability to undertake local marketing activities that increase consumer awareness and sales of local agriculture, food and beverage products.
Buy BC is a province-wide marketing program that focuses on building greater consumer awareness, demand and sales of local agriculture, food, and beverage products within British Columbia. The Buy BC logo provides a trusted symbol for consumers to look for and identify fresh, high-quality B.C. products, and encourages them to explore new products from around the province.
Eligible applicants:
Producers, Processors and Cooperatives which includes:
Primary agriculture, seafood producers and cooperatives, including growers, harvesters, ranchers, and those producing fresh food, or agricultural and seafood products which are 100% grown, caught, or raised in B.C.
Processors including businesses that transform raw agricultural, food, beverage, and/or seafood materials into new products, beyond basic washing, grading, and packaging, with at least 51% of the final costs of production originating in B.C.
Deadline: July 18, 2025
Funding amount: For producers, processors and cooperatives, funding is available from a minimum of $5,000 per year up to:
A maximum of $15,000 per year for Applicants with an annual gross revenue less than $250,000, and;
A maximum of $30,000 per year for Applicants with an annual gross revenue over $250,000.
Contact: admin@BuyBCPartnershipProgram.ca
Description: Supporting farmers in BC and the Yukon tackle climate change through the adoption of beneficial management practices in three specific areas: nitrogen management, cover cropping and rotational grazing. Funding is available to support farmers in:
New adoption of nitrogen management, cover cropping and rotational grazing practices
Expanding nitrogen management, cover cropping and rotational grazing practices on a farm area where these practices have not previously been used
Eligible applicants:
Have a farm in BC or the Yukon
Be appropriately registered, licensed and/ or certified to conduct business in BC and/or the Yukon
Have farm status (BC applicants only)
Be registered with CRA
Be in operation for at least one year
Deadline: Applications will remain open until funding is fully committed.
Funding amount: up to $100,000
Contact: caf@iafbc.ca
Description: The Access to Feed Program links B.C. producers experiencing drought and feed shortages with suppliers who have feed available.
Eligible applicants: This program is available to all livestock producers.
Deadline: Not specified
Funding amount: Access to feed for livestock producers.
Contact: Greg Tegart at 250-306-6277 or hay@cattlemen.bc.ca
Economic Development:
Description: This program supports small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Southern Interior of BC that are either exporting or are export ready. Funding from the Market Diversification fuels expansion into other provinces and international markets (outside the US). The program will match the investments that SMEs are already making toward their international growth and expansion, up to $10,000 per company.
Eligible applicants: This initiative is a fit for:
Small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located in BC’s Southern Interior
Export-ready companies that already have a documented plan to expand extra-provincially or into international markets
Companies already doing business outside B.C. and the U.S.
Businesses looking to build global partnerships and attract investment
Deadline: Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and the program will remain open until all funds have been allocated. We encourage companies to apply as soon as they have a clear plan for expanding into new markets.
Funding amount: up to $10,000
Contact: start with inquiry form.
Infrastructure:
Description: The intent of the Active Transportation Planning program is to support local governments to incorporate or enhance active transportation components of formal planning documents (Official Community Plan, Sustainability Plan, Neighbourhood Plan, or Transportation Plan), including research, engagement, and policy development. Funding is provided by the Province of BC.
Eligible applicants: All local governments (municipalities, regional districts, and the Islands Trust) in BC that meet the following criteria are eligible to apply:
Have a population of up to 25,000 (based on 2021 Census data). Note: regional districts can apply for one or more electoral areas with a combined population of up to 25,000 in a single application.
Do not have an active transportation plan or have a plan over 5 years old.
Are currently or will be undertaking a community land use and/or transportation plan to which an active transportation lens will be included.
Have not received a network planning grant from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure’s Active Transportation Infrastructure Grant program.
Deadline: September 30, 2025
Funding amount: up to 100% of the cost of eligible activities to a maximum of $30,000
Contact: lgps@ubcm.ca
Community Development:
Description: As part of the Province’s goal to improve accessibility for people with disabilities in BC, Disability Alliance BC was selected by the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction to distribute funding to community-based “Accessibility Projects” beginning in 2018. Since then, over 90 projects have been funded throughout BC.
Eligible Applicants: Eligible organizations must be BC-based not-for-profit organizations that operate primarily for community benefit and whose services are open to the public. National or international organizations may be eligible, but only if they have a base of operations in BC and sufficient capacity to deliver services in BC. Governmental organizations, including municipalities, are ineligible for funding.
Deadline: Applications will open on August 5th, with a deadline of September 12, 2025
Funding amount: $40,000 grant to implement a year-long project in 2025.
Contact: ap@dabc.ca
Description: Participatory Action Research (PAR) grants fund health-related research projects that investigate and understand the root causes of pressing health issues affecting our communities in BC. By focusing on the social determinants of health, such as education, employment, and healthcare— these grants play a critical role in generating knowledge and informing policy that invests in community health.
Eligible applicants:
The organization acting as the primary applicant is a qualified donee listed by the Canada Revenue Agency
The research must be a collaboration between a community service organization and an institution with access to an ethics board, such as a university, health authority or other research-based organization
The project takes place primarily in BC
Use a participatory action research methodology to develop and/or explore a health research question coming from community
Deadline: August 5, 2025
Funding amount:
Convene Grants (up to $25,000, for up to one year): Convene grants are short-term grants to help teams to unpack a complex health issue and to question the systemic behaviours that have created that issue, or that are holding the issue in place. Convene grants help teams to articulate a research question and to develop a participatory research project plan that can then be submitted to funding organizations in the future. The funding requested should be distributed equitably between the convening process and the community’s participation in that process. Convene grants are a one-stage application.
Investigate Grants (up to $100,000 per year, for up to three years): Investigate grants are multi-year grants to help teams answer a research question, analyze their findings, and share knowledge in a way that supports the community to take action in the future. Investigate grants have a two-stage application process. Applicants begin their application by completing the first stage of questions and, if successful, are then invited to complete the remaining questions.
Contact: grants.admin@vancouverfoundation.ca
Description: The goal of a Regional C2C program is increased understanding and improved overall relations between First Nations and local governments. The C2C program supports this goal with funding for:
Forums that support dialogue to build relationships, support reconciliation efforts, resolve issues of common responsibility, interest or concern, and/or to advance tangible outcomes.
Development of agreements (such as protocols, MOUs, and service agreements), joint plans and/or strategies that advance First Nation/local government reconciliation and relationship building.
Joint review of bylaws and/or policies in order to develop recommendations for amendments or new bylaws and/or policies that advance reconciliation.
Eligible applicants: Funding permitting, all local governments (municipalities, regional districts or the Islands Trust) and First Nations (Treaty First Nation, Band, Tribal Council or National Government) in BC are eligible to apply.
Deadline: September 5, 2025.
Funding amount: The C2C program can contribute a 100% of the cost of eligible activities up to a maximum of $20,000 as follows:
C2C forums: up to a maximum of $10,000
C2C agreements and joint review of bylaws/policies: up to a maximum of $10,000
Contact: lgps@ubcm.ca
Description: The lululemon Community Wellbeing Grant—formerly known as Here to Be—provides funding to community-led non-profit organizations around the globe that are advancing the wellbeing of their communities through creating equitable access to movement and mindful programming.
Eligible applicants:
Must be a registered non-profit or charity, or fiscally sponsored by one
Must be working to advance wellbeing by creating equitable access to movement and mindful programming *
Must be community-led and serving communities that experience barriers to wellbeing
Must be operating in Australia, Canada, China Mainland, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Macau SAR, Malaysia, Mexico, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, UK, USA, and/or Vietnam
Annual budget of less than $3 million USD will be prioritized
Deadline: August 1, 2025
Funding amount: Interested organizations can apply for up to $50,000 USD, which should not exceed 40% of their most recently completed fiscal year’s operating budget.
Contact: communitywellbeing@lululemon.com
Workforce Development:
Description: The Innovator Skills Initiative provides up to $10,000 to help employers hire a new employee. The program helps under-represented people get their first job in B.C.’s tech sector and supports companies facing skills shortages to grow and expand.
Eligible applicants:
Employer Eligibility
A B.C.-based technology business/organization hiring for a business or tech role
A B.C.-based non-tech business/organization, including public body and Indigenous community, hiring for a tech role
Employee Eligibility
Self-identifies as belonging to an under-represented group
Must be living in B.C. and be eligible to work in B.C.
Must be a new hire on or after April 1, 2025
Has completed training or education on or after December 1, 2022, whether at a post-secondary institute or through other recognized pathways.
Deadline: November 20, 2025
Funding amount:
A maximum of one grant of up to $10,000 per candidate per company to supplement a new employee’s salary
Up to 10 grants for 10 different employees per year
Contact: programs@innovatebc.ca
Description: As part of the StrongerBC Future Ready Action Plan, government introduced the future skills grant program to support people living in B.C., aged 19 and older, in accessing up to $3,500 for eligible short-term skills training. In 2025/26, 24 public post-secondary institutions across B.C. will offer a wide range of programs designed to equip learners with job-related skills that boost productivity and support career transitions and advancement. To align with B.C.’s evolving economic needs, this year’s future skills grant continues to focus on training programs that reflect government priorities and address labour demands in key sectors, including:
Health care
Clean energy
Construction
Mining
Marine transportation
Inclusive economy
Eligible applicants: See eligibility checklist.
Deadline: Not specified. Course offerings from participating post-secondary institutions will be released daily throughout the months of June and July.
Funding amount: up to $3500 per British Columbians over 19
Contact: futureskillsgrant@gov.bc.ca
Description: Job Creation Partnerships fund local projects that provide work experience and training opportunities to eligible participants. Projects must enhance participant’s employability skills by providing work experience and training leading to employment. Projects must benefit the community and local economy. Community and Employer Partnerships 2025/26 will focus on fewer, strategically chosen job creation partnerships and project-based labour market training projects to ensure maximum impact and alignment with the ministry and national priorities.
Eligible applicants: Eligible project holders include:
• Non-Profit Organizations • Crown Corporations • Municipalities or Agencies • Indigenous Organizations • Public Health and Educational Institutions • Businesses
Eligible participants include:
• Unemployed people eligible to work in BC; • Have established a claim for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits; or • Have had an EI benefit period that ended within the previous 60 months; or • Have earned more than $2,000 in insurable earnings and paid employee EI premiums on those earnings in at least 5 of the last 10 years (Note: the 5 years do not have to be consecutive years);
Deadline: Not specified
Funding amount: Not specified
Contact: CEPTEAM@gov.bc.ca
Description: Project Based Labour Market Training provides funding to organizations in support of projects that provide a combination of training, on-the-job work experience and follow-up support to eligible individuals that will improve their employment skills and prepare them for in-demand jobs. Training takes place in a supportive group setting and is supplemented by a range of activities like counselling, vocational and/ or learning assessments, work experience, job search skills, mentorship, referral to community resources and post project follow-up. Community and Employer Partnerships 2025/26 will focus on fewer, strategically chosen job creation partnerships and project-based labour market training projects to ensure maximum impact and alignment with the ministry and national priorities.
Eligible applicants: Eligible project holders include:
• Non-Profit Organizations • Crown Corporations • Municipalities or Agencies • Indigenous Organizations • Public Health and Educational Institutions • Businesses
Eligible participants include:
• Unemployed people eligible to work in BC; • Have established a claim for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits; or • Have had an EI benefit period that ended within the previous 60 months; or • Have earned more than $2,000 in insurable earnings and paid employee EI premiums on those earnings in at least 5 of the last 10 years (Note: the 5 years do not have to be consecutive years); or • Receiving BC Employment and Assistance;
Deadline: Not specified
Funding amount: Not specified
Contact: CEPTEAM@gov.bc.ca
Natural Resources:
Description: CoNext Climate Preparedness Hub is a free, 5-month training program designed to build climate resilience in small, rural, and remote communities in BC. This program provides Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities with the skills, tools, and support needed to develop and implement effective climate adaptation strategies.
In 2024/25, 16 communities from across BC participated in the first year of the program, with representation from First Nations, local governments, and regional districts. The second year of CoNext, kicking off in Fall 2025, will build on this success and continue to support small communities in their climate preparedness journey.
Eligible applicants: This opportunity is ideal for:
Small, rural, or remote communities in BC
Communities in the early stages of climate adaptation planning
Teams of 3+ people from diverse departments
Deadline: July 18, 2025
Funding amount: Training program.
Contact: rmacdonald@fraserbasin.ca
Description: Founded by TD Bank Group in 1990, the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation (TD FEF) is a national charity that funds environmental projects across Canada.
Eligible applicants:
Registered Canadian charities with a Charitable Registration Number (CRN)
Educational institutions (primary/secondary/post-secondary)
Municipalities
Indigenous groups/communities
Deadline: July 15, 2025
Funding amount: Funding requests are needs based, and there is no set minimum or maximum amount for which you can apply. However, the majority of TD FEF grants are between $2,000 and $8,000.
Contact: tdfef@td.com
Description: GMF’s Growing Canada’s Community Canopies initiative funds planting the right type of trees in the right places so that communities across Canada can grow, manage and protect their tree canopies.
Eligible applicants: Canadian Municipalities, Organizations in partnership with municipalities which include municipal corporations, regional organizations delivering municipal services, Indigenous organizations, non-for profit organizations, for-profit or private-sector entities.
Deadline: September 18, 2025
Funding amount: Lifetime funding per municipality:
Up to a maximum of $10 million in project funding
Up to a maximum of $1 million in infrastructure activity funding
Contact: gmfinfo@fcm.ca
Description: The Forest Enhancement Society of BC (FESBC) is accepting applications to fund projects that encourage diversity and innovation by the forest sector to utilize uneconomical residual fibre located on provincial crown land. FESBC is committed to fund projects that increase residual fibre utilization by non-lumber producing facilities, utilize fibre from fire and insect damaged stands and minimize emissions associated with open burning.
Eligible applicants:
First Nations (bands, Treaty First Nations and Indigenous Governments with authority for lands and resources) in BC,
Companies owned in full or in part by First Nation governments or Indigenous entrepreneurs,
Small area-based tenures including:
Community Forest Agreement holders
Woodlot Licensees
Forest tenure holders, fibre suppliers or purchasers of non-sawlog fibre that do not own or control a dimensional softwood lumber manufacturing facility (as determined by Ministry of Forests),
Ministry of Forests and other provincial agencies, or
Local governments (municipalities or regional districts)
Deadline: Not specified
Funding amount: Not specified
Contact: temsland@fesbc.ca
Emergency Management:
Description: The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) is now offering its Open for Business™ program to help small businesses prepare for and recover from disasters. This free program provides practical tools and templates to support business continuity and resilience. For full details and to access the toolkit, visit the webpage.
Eligible applicants: Small businesses
Deadline: Continuous intake
Funding amount: Training program
Contact: info@iclr.org
Arts, Culture and Heritage:
Description: The Slate Development Program is designed to support the growth of mid-level and experienced B.C.-based production companies with a significant track record of owned and controlled independent production in the province. Recipients will receive support towards the development costs of two or more projects.
Eligible applicants:
Be a company incorporated in British Columbia or Canada with its head office in British Columbia. (Note: Companies extra-provincially registered in B.C. are not eligible.)
The majority of the common interest voting shares of the company must be held by B.C. residents.
Their primary business is the creation of motion picture audiovisual content.
They, and any related or associated parties must be in good standing with Creative BC.
Further, the applicant or the company must demonstrate in the past 5 years EITHER:
a minimum B.C. owned and controlled production spend of $1 million in the province, OR
have produced a minimum of 2 completed B.C. owned and controlled film or television productions that have been released theatrically, broadcast on television (including but not limited to VOD services such as Gem, Crave, Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+) or played at internationally recognized film festivals.
Deadline: opens July 16, closes August 13, 2025.
Funding amount: up to $50,000
Contact: mryan@creativebc.com
Description: “Toga da wôhnagabi” (Stories for the future) is a four-week hybrid Indigenous music residency that brings worldviews together from all four corners of Mother Earth. Watched over by Buffalo Spirit, the residency provides musicians and songwriters a transformative space to actively listen and learn from each other in story and song. In-Person Dates: February 9th, 2026 to February 28th, 2026
Eligible applicants: Open to Indigenous people from all regions - locally, nationally, and internationally.
Ideal for Indigenous musicians, singer-songwriters, composers, and creators across all music genres.
Applicants should have one or more completed projects and be working on a new project.
Designed for solo artists and duos.
Deadline: August 20, 2025
Funding amount: Training and program based.
Contact: Admissions@banffcentre.ca
Description: Early Career Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR) 2026 is an immersive program of studio practice, creative exploration, critical feedback, and mentorship for visual artists in the early stages of their careers. Open to artists working in all visual arts mediums, this program is faculty-led while providing space, time, and support towards the development of an agreed-upon studio project.
Eligible applicants: Early Career refers to artists who are new to their professional practice as well as those just entering, or in the early stages of their career. This residency is for individual artists or duos (of no more than two collaborators) who have:
completed formal training in visual arts at the post-secondary level; or
equivalent experience and recognition from their peers acquired through traditional knowledge and practices.
Deadline: August 27, 2025
Funding amount: Training and program based.
Contact: Admissions@banffcentre.ca
Description: The Language Program provides funding and support for community-led projects that revitalize First Nations languages in B.C. and help create fluent speakers.
The Language Program is the combination of some prior funding programs offered through FPCC. The new combined program creates the opportunity for communities to implement multiple connected projects in a coordinated way, leading to greater outcomes.
Eligible applicants:
Recognized First Nations governments, bands or tribal councils located in B.C.
Not-for-profit societies registered in B.C., in good standing and governed by B.C. First Nations individuals (at least 65% of an organization’s board members/directors be individuals who are members of or have ancestral connections to a B.C. First Nation.)
Urban and off-reserve B.C. First Nations organizations (at least 65% of an organization’s board members/directors be individuals who are members of or have ancestral connections to a B.C. First Nation.)
B.C. First Nations–led museums and cultural spaces (at least 65% of an organization’s board members/directors be individuals who are members of or have ancestral connections to a B.C. First Nation.)
B.C. First Nations schools and adult education centres operating in B.C. on First Nations lands (Please note that applications from First Nations schools that serve one community must be submitted through their respective Nation/Band Office)
Deadline: August 6, 2025
Funding amount: $25,000 - $300,000
Contact: languagegrant@fpcc.ca
Description: The Events component of the Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Program (MARP) provides funding to community-based events that:
promote intercultural or interfaith understanding
promote discussions on multiculturalism, diversity, racism and religious discrimination
celebrate a community’s history and culture such as heritage months recognized by Parliament
Eligible applicants:
Canadian not-for-profit organizations, associations and unincorporated groups
Canadian incorporated and unincorporated municipalities and townships with a population of up to 10,000
Indigenous not-for-profit organizations (First Nations, Inuit or Métis)
Indigenous governments, band councils or tribal councils
Deadline: There is no fixed deadline to submit an application, as applications are accepted on a continuous basis. However, to ensure timely assessment, it is advised that your application be submitted 18 weeks prior to the proposed event start date.
Funding amount: The Events component’s maximum amount per event, per fiscal year is $100,000, while the maximum amount per recipient for a recurring event over two fiscal years is $200,000 per application in the case of multi-year contributions. The total amount requested cannot exceed $200,000 in the case of a multi-year contributions.
Contact: multiwest-multiouest@pch.gc.ca
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