CDAP — Status: Closed
CDAP is closed. Here's the replacement map for Canadian SMEs in 2026.
The Canada Digital Adoption Program officially ended March 31, 2025. BYBT stopped accepting new applications February 19, 2024. GYBO closed September 30, 2024. There is no direct federal replacement — but there is a clean post-CDAP funding map. This page is that map: by province, by federal program, and by SME profile. Plain English, no upsell.
What CDAP was — past tense
The Canada Digital Adoption Program launched in March 2022 as a federal initiative to help Canadian small businesses adopt digital technologies. It was Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's (ISED) main SME digital-adoption vehicle, and it ran two parallel sub-programs through its lifetime:
Boost Your Business Technology (BYBT)
- $15,000 grant for a digital adoption plan from a CDAP-approved advisor
- $100,000 interest-free loan through BDC to implement the plan
- Wage subsidy for placing youth talent in adoption-related roles
- SMEs with $500K–$100M annual revenue, ≥1 W2 employee
- Approved CDAP digital advisor required
Grow Your Business Online (GYBO)
- $2,400 micro-grant for adopting basic e-commerce
- Free e-commerce advisor support through regional delivery partners
- Targeted at 0–10 employee consumer-facing businesses
- Delivered through regional development agencies in each province
- Much faster intake than BYBT, smaller scope
Both streams shared a common assumption: Canadian SMEs needed a structured nudge — a planning grant plus follow-on capital — to cross the digital-adoption gap. The program ran for roughly three years and funded tens of thousands of SMEs. It also developed reputational issues with the advisor-marketplace structure, which (alongside budget reallocation) contributed to the wind-down.
Source: program announcements at canada.ca (launch) and subsequent ISED communications on wind-down through 2024–2025. Final closure date: March 31, 2025.
Why it closed — the short timeline
The replacement map — by province
Most CDAP-shaped digital-adoption funding in 2026 sits at the provincial level. The pattern: provinces stepped in (or expanded existing programs) to fill some of the gap left by CDAP, though no province has replicated BYBT's specific $15K-plus-$100K structure exactly. Pick by location.
OCI DCC — Digital Modernization & Adoption Plan + Technology Demonstration
ESSOR 1B / 1C — Programme ESSOR (Investissement Québec)
BC — PacifiCan + Innovate BC
The replacement map — by federal program
Federally, the post-CDAP picture is three larger, more specialised programs rather than one general one. None are direct one-for-one replacements; together they cover most of the SME digital-adoption ground CDAP used to cover, plus more.
BDC LIFT — AI adoption loan ($500M envelope)
NRC IRAP + AI Assist — non-repayable R&D contribution
Scale AI — consortium-led value-chain projects
Side-by-side — CDAP vs. the active replacements
The comparison most former CDAP applicants want to see, in one table.
| Program | Status | Funding | Type | Eligibility | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CDAP BYBT | Closed Feb 2024 | $15K + $100K loan | Grant + 0% loan | $500K–$100M revenue | General digital adoption |
| CDAP GYBO | Closed Sep 2024 | $2,400 | Micro-grant | 0–10 employees | E-commerce launch |
| BDC LIFT | Active | $25K–$5M | Loan (2.25% preferential) | $1M+ revenue (Track A) | AI adoption |
| NRC IRAP | Active | $75K–$10M project | Non-repayable contribution | Incorporated, ≤500 FTEs | R&D (including AI Assist) |
| Scale AI | Active | 40% of $1M+ project | Reimbursement | 3–4 partner consortium | Industrial AI value chain |
| Ontario DCC | Active | $15K (DMAP) + $150K (TDP) | Cost-share grant | Ontario SMEs | Digital adoption + tech demo |
| Quebec ESSOR | Active | $10K–$50K+ | Contribution | Quebec SMEs | Modernisation + productivity |
| BC PacifiCan | Active | Up to $3M | Mixed | BC SMEs | Regional innovation |
Recommended path by SME profile
The replacement that fits depends less on what you wanted from CDAP and more on three things now: your revenue, your project type, and your province. Five profiles cover most former CDAP applicants we hear from.
Sub-$1M revenue, micro/small business, basic digital adoption
You're under $1M in annual revenue and your project is something like a better website, e-commerce, basic CRM, or marketing tooling. CDAP GYBO would have been the right fit; CDAP no longer applies. BDC LIFT's $1M revenue floor excludes you.
Recommendation: Provincial programs are your primary path — Ontario DCC DMAP, Quebec ESSOR 1B, Innovate BC's small-business programs depending on your province. Federal options at this revenue level are limited.
$1M+ revenue, single-applicant, AI adoption
You have $1M+ in revenue, you're a single applicant (no consortium), and your project is AI adoption inside your own operation — receptionist agents, missed-call recovery, intake automation, scheduling AI, content automation, customer re-engagement.
Recommendation: BDC LIFT is the clean fit. $25K–$2M AI-only loans with the 2.25% preferential rate when you pick a Canadian integrator. This is the closest BYBT-shaped replacement for AI-focused projects, with much larger capital available.
Incorporated SME, genuine R&D, technical novelty
You're incorporated, ≤500 FTEs, and your project involves real technical uncertainty — custom AI model adaptation, novel integration architecture, retrieval over proprietary corpora, multi-agent design for a domain-specific problem. CDAP wouldn't have funded this anyway; it was always too R&D-flavoured for BYBT.
Recommendation: NRC IRAP with the AI Assist sub-stream. Non-repayable, 60–80% reimbursement on technical labour and subcontractor costs, first-time projects $75K–$200K. Stack with SR&ED at year-end and (optionally) BDC LIFT for the deployment layer.
3–4 partner consortium, value-chain AI
You're embedded in a supplier/customer network and the AI use case is genuinely cross-organisation — food brand and co-packers, manufacturer and tier-2 suppliers, carrier and shippers. The project value is $1M+ across the consortium.
Recommendation: Scale AI. Up to 40% reimbursement on industrial AI projects delivered by 3–4 partner consortia. The May 2026 federal announcement and December 2025 round signal the program is actively deploying.
Project is not AI, not R&D, just general digital adoption
You want what CDAP BYBT actually provided — a planning grant for a digital adoption plan plus follow-on capital to implement it. The project is operational software, CRM rollout, ERP modernisation, or general workflow automation that isn't AI-led.
Recommendation: Provincial programs first (Ontario DCC, Quebec ESSOR, BC PacifiCan + Innovate BC). The federal layer (LIFT / IRAP / Scale AI) is increasingly AI-focused and may not fit non-AI digital adoption cleanly. We can help you scope the project across provincial + federal options on a call.
How Creatrixe helps you navigate this
Honest framing: most of the programs above are not ours. We're a Canadian AI consultancy in Burnaby, BC. We ship production AI for Canadian SMEs — receptionists, missed-call recovery, intake automation, content syndication, customer re-engagement. We are not a grants consultancy and we won't pretend to be.
What we actually do that's useful at this stage:
- We've shipped through CDAP-funded SMEs before, so we know what BYBT-shaped work looked like and what survived the wind-down.
- We know which programs stack. IRAP + SR&ED for R&D, LIFT + provincial for adoption, Scale AI for consortium-led value-chain projects. The stacking rules are not obvious and we can map them for your project on a call.
- We are the implementation half of LIFT (system integrator with the 2.25% rate trigger), IRAP (named subcontractor), and Scale AI (named AI service provider) projects. So once a program fits, we slot in to ship the work.
- We will tell you when no program fits and the project should be self-funded or shelved. That's a real outcome, and it's better to hear early than after a six-week application sprint.
If you want a longer read on how we think about AI work generally, the human-assisted vs. AI-assisted workflows post is the best primer.
Common questions about CDAP closure and replacements
Is CDAP still open in 2026?
No. CDAP officially ended on March 31, 2025. Boost Your Business Technology (BYBT) stopped accepting new applications on February 19, 2024. Grow Your Business Online (GYBO) closed September 30, 2024. There is no federal program currently accepting new CDAP applications, and Budget 2025 and Budget 2026 did not contain a direct CDAP successor.
Is CDAP coming back?
There is no announced plan to bring CDAP back as a federal program. Federal capital for SME digital adoption has been re-routed into other instruments: BDC LIFT for AI-focused adoption, NRC IRAP for R&D, and Scale AI for collaborative consortia. The provinces have stepped in with their own digital-adoption programs, which now carry most of the digital-adoption grant volume in Canada.
What replaced CDAP at the federal level?
Nothing replaced CDAP one-for-one. The closest spiritual successor is BDC LIFT — $500M loan program for AI adoption with a 2.25% preferential rate when borrowers pick a Canadian integrator. NRC IRAP (including the new $100M AI Assist sub-stream) handles R&D. Scale AI handles consortium-led value-chain projects. None of these are grants at the $15K BYBT scale; the federal direction is larger, loan-based, and AI-focused.
Did my CDAP digital advisor referral go anywhere?
The CDAP digital advisor program shut down with the rest of the program in 2024–2025. Advisor lists are no longer maintained at the federal level. SMEs that started a CDAP project but didn't complete it should expect no federal continuation. Provincial programs each maintain their own advisor or service-provider rosters separately.
What if I started a CDAP project but didn't finish?
If you had an active CDAP claim in flight when the program wound down, ISED's published transition guidance was that claims under existing approvals would be honoured through the program closeout. If you never reached approval, the project does not carry forward. The same digital-adoption work can usually be re-scoped against a provincial program (Ontario DCC, Quebec ESSOR, BC PacifiCan) or against BDC LIFT if it's AI-focused. The scope often survives the program change; only the paperwork changes.
Can I still get the $15,000 BYBT grant somewhere else?
Not federally. The closest provincial equivalent at the $15K scale is Ontario's DMAP under the OCI DCC, which provides up to $15K for digital transformation planning. Quebec's ESSOR 1B / 1C provides $10K–$50K. BC SMEs have Innovate BC programs and the PacifiCan RAII for larger scopes. None replicate BYBT exactly, but the $15K planning grant pattern continues at the provincial level.
What's the best CDAP replacement by province?
By province: Ontario SMEs look at OCI DCC (DMAP for planning, TDP for technology demonstration). Quebec SMEs look at ESSOR 1B and 1C. BC SMEs look at Innovate BC's programs and PacifiCan RAII for larger projects. Across all provinces, federal programs (BDC LIFT, NRC IRAP, Scale AI) layer on top of the provincial work. The right path depends on whether your project is adoption, R&D, or consortium-led, and what your revenue and team size look like.
How do I figure out what fits my SME now?
Three filters: your revenue (BDC LIFT needs $1M+; CDAP didn't), your project type (adoption vs R&D vs consortium), and your province. Most former CDAP applicants land on BDC LIFT (if AI-focused and $1M+ revenue) or a provincial program (if smaller scope or below the LIFT revenue floor). The Profile A–E section above covers the five most common cases; if none match cleanly, we can map your specific situation in a 20-minute call.
The honest take
CDAP wasn't perfect — the advisor-marketplace structure had real issues — but it served a real function: it was the only federal program designed specifically to nudge non-AI SMEs into digital adoption with planning grants plus implementation capital. The post-CDAP federal landscape is bigger in dollar terms but narrower in scope: it's AI-focused (LIFT), R&D-focused (IRAP), or consortium-focused (Scale AI). General digital-adoption grants for sub-$1M micro-businesses have shifted to the provinces and are uneven by region.
If you came here looking for the program CDAP used to be and you don't fit any of the active replacements, the honest answer is that the project may need to be self-funded or restructured. We'd rather tell you that than send you down a six-week application sprint that ends in a polite rejection.
For the active replacements, the in-depth pages: BDC LIFT, NRC IRAP, Scale AI.
Not sure which post-CDAP path fits? 20-minute call.
We'll map your situation against the active programs — federal and provincial — and tell you the realistic next move. If no program fits, we'll say that too.