Business Growth — Attracting and retaining talent

• The applicant must be a private incorporated business or a social economy enterprise (non-profit or cooperative) that carries out mainly commercial activities; in Wendake, eligible applicants also include sole proprietorships and general partnerships majority-owned by Indigenous people.
• The project must focus on attracting, recruiting, welcoming, integrating, training and/or retaining national or international employees.
• The applicant must demonstrate the project’s concrete impact on the company’s human resources situation (e.g., improving talent attraction or retention).
• The project must ultimately aim to attract and retain talent for positions based in the Québec City agglomeration (Québec City, Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, L’Ancienne-Lorette) or Wendake, even if some activities occur outside this territory.
• The project must be distinct from and complementary to recruitment missions or programs already subsidized by the City of Québec.

Who is eligible?

• Private incorporated companies
• Social economy enterprises (non-profit organizations and cooperatives) that carry out mostly commercial activities
• Companies in priority sectors such as agri-food and food processing, digital arts and interactive entertainment, fintech, artificial intelligence, smart city technologies, advanced electronics, life sciences and health technologies, and clean technologies
• Companies in strategic sectors such as art, culture and heritage, insurance and financial services, manufacturing and industrial transformation, urban security, and tourism
• Commercial sector businesses in retail, restaurants, and services to leisure and business tourists on the territory, with 50 or fewer full-time equivalent employees

Who is not eligible

• Vehicle dealerships, auto parts retailers, gas stations, and collaborative tourist accommodation providers (e.g., Airbnb, Home Away), as well as businesses operating exclusively online.
• Social economy organizations (non-profits and co-operatives) that cannot demonstrate sound democratic governance.
• Applicants who are not discharged from a bankruptcy judgment, or who have outstanding amounts owed to the City of Québec.
• Businesses listed in the Register of Enterprises Ineligible for Public Contracts, or applicants who failed to meet obligations related to previous financial assistance from the City of Québec in the last two years after formal notice.
• Projects that are discriminatory, controversial, or pose a reputational risk for the City of Québec, as well as one-off, event-based projects.

Eligible expenses

• Professional fees, consulting services and studies directly related to the project.
• Pre-start-up, start-up expenses and initial working capital required to implement the project.
• Salaries for human resources assigned to the project, based on the hourly rate normally paid by the company.
• Purchase or rental of goods, equipment and assets required for the project.
• Costs related to hiring people who are far from the labour market or who face various forms of discrimination in the labour market.

Eligible geographic areas

• Projects must aim to attract and retain talent for business facilities located within the Québec City agglomeration, specifically in the cities of Québec, Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures and L’Ancienne-Lorette.
• Businesses located in Wendake are also eligible, including individually owned and general partnership businesses majority-owned by Indigenous persons situated on the territory of Wendake.

• Quality and robustness of the responsible business model.
• Financial capacity of the applicant to complete the project and achieve its objectives.
• Viability and coherence of the project (relevance, realistic financial structure and involvement of partners).
• Organizational capacity to manage and deliver the project, including a dedicated HR support structure.
• Distinctive and innovative nature of the project, and its demonstrated economic, social and environmental benefits in the Québec City agglomeration, including contribution to business growth and clearly demonstrated need for financial support.

• The program is open for applications on a continuous basis, with no fixed submission deadline.
• Being deemed eligible does not guarantee that financial assistance will be granted.
• The amount awarded depends on the availability of funds and the assessed need for financial support.
• Assistance may be offered as a non-repayable grant, a loan, or a combination of both.