Bons d'accompagnement vers la croissance — Ville de Québec

Program Description

A non-repayable contribution from the City of Québec for specialized professional consulting that tackles a company's strategic issues — up to $30,000 per company per year at 30% of eligible expenses for incorporated private businesses, or up to $15,000 per year at 80% for non-profit social-economy enterprises (50% if the social-economy enterprise is for-profit). There is no minimum project size, but the sector list is narrow and the City must approve the consultant's mandate before the contract is signed.

Eligibility Requirements

• Applicant must be a privately incorporated business, or a social-economy enterprise (non-profit or co-operative) carrying out mainly commercial activities. Duly registered sole proprietorships and general partnerships qualify only if they are majority Indigenous-owned and located on the territory of Wendake.
• The project territory and the head office must both be in the Quebec City agglomeration (Québec, Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, L'Ancienne-Lorette) or Wendake.
• The project must be specialized professional consulting services addressing the company's strategic issues at various stages of its development.
• The business must operate in one of the eligible sectors: agri-food, food processing and health foods; digital arts and interactive entertainment, financial technologies, artificial intelligence, smart city or other digital products and technologies — explicitly excluding services and consulting; manufacturing, materials, industrial processing, robotics and Industry 4.0; optics-photonics, measurement and control technologies, advanced electronics; life sciences, biotechnology and health technologies; or clean technologies (water, air, soil treatment, eco-mobility, energy efficiency, renewable energy, green chemistry, residual materials, enabling technologies and sustainable development).
• Outside those sectors, two routes exist: social-economy enterprises in any sector except retail and restaurants that carry out mainly commercial activities with more than 40% autonomous revenue; and property owners undertaking commercial urban agriculture projects.
• The company chooses its own consultant, but the mandate must be approved by the Ville de Québec before the contract is signed.
• There is no minimum project cost.
• Repayment clauses apply if the business leaves the territory or ceases operations, calculated by the date of the event.
• Total active funding across all Ville de Québec economic-development programs is capped at $500,000 per two-year period, with every award counted at 100% of its value.
• Social-economy enterprises that cannot demonstrate sound democratic governance are excluded, as are foundations.
• One-off event-type projects are excluded.
• Applicants who have not been discharged from a bankruptcy judgment are excluded.
• Businesses listed on Quebec's Registre des entreprises non admissibles aux contrats publics (RENA) are excluded.
• Applicants who, in the two years preceding the application, failed to meet obligations tied to earlier Ville de Québec financial assistance after being formally put on notice are excluded.
• Applicants with amounts outstanding to the Ville de Québec are excluded, and any sums owed are deducted from payments (taxes, SDC dues, fines).
• Organizations that do not meet the high integrity standards the public is entitled to expect of a recipient of public funds are excluded, as are discriminatory or controversial projects, or projects presenting a reputational risk to the City.
• No member of Quebec's National Assembly, no municipal elected official and no member of their family may be party to, or benefit from, a contract or commission arising from the FRCN delegation agreement.
• An incomplete application, or one that does not respect the required document formats, is deemed inadmissible.
• Eligibility does not guarantee an award — the amount offered depends on available funds and the City's assessment of demonstrated need, including the compensation levels of the company's principal officers.