The Retail Modernization Project Grant (RMPG) is delivered by the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) on behalf of the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, as part of the broader Digitalization Competence Centre (DCC) initiative. It exists to help independent Ontario retailers modernize the technology they run their stores on.

RMPG reimburses 50% of your eligible project costs, capped at a maximum of $5,000. In practice that means a $10,000 technology project returns $5,000. That’s the level the program is built around and the level we work at. You pay your vendors first, then submit invoices and proof of payment, and OCI reimburses your share.

The grant covers the acquisition and commissioning of retail technology — CRM systems, AI customer interaction systems, accounting software, inventory management, scheduling and labour management software, digital storage, and on the hardware side point-of-sale, mobile POS, self-checkout kiosks, electronic shelf labels, RFID and IoT, and video loss prevention. Twelve months of software licensing is reimbursable, as are set-up, configuration and training delivered by your vendor. You can bundle several technologies into one application to reach the project total. You do not need to file separate applications for each system.

You likely qualify if your business:

• Is incorporated federally or provincially with a valid Business Number
• Is for-profit and privately owned
• Has between 1 and 50 full-time equivalent employees
• Operates a permanent, public, physical bricks-and-mortar retail location in Ontario
• Has been operating from that physical location for at least one year
• Sells goods or services directly to consumers — a shop, café, salon, bakery, garden centre, bike shop, butcher, pet store, and so on
• Had at least $100,000 in annual revenue in one of the last three tax years

You are not eligible if you are an online-only or e-commerce-exclusive business, a corporate chain or franchise, a registered charity or not-for-profit, a multi-level marketing representative, a professional advisory or consulting practice (finance, insurance, mortgage, real estate, legal), a medical service (GP, dentist, chiropractor, massage therapy), or a hospitality business with no food offering or menu.

Two specific rules catch a lot of applicants: if you operate three or more locations that share branding, ownership, management or business practices, you are treated as a chain and are not eligible, even if each location is separately incorporated. Two locations are treated as a single business and get one application between them. And if your business has previously received or is currently receiving DMAP grant support, you cannot apply to RMPG.

Not sure where you land? That’s the first thing we screen on the discovery call, before you spend any time or money.

You can absolutely apply yourself. Most people who try discover the same three things.

First, you can’t just go apply. The application has to be initiated inside OCI’s AccessOCI system by an OCI Business Development Manager or Digital Adoption Advisor, and one of them has to formally endorse your application before it can even be submitted. We know how that process runs and we get you connected and moving instead of sitting in a queue.

Second, RMPG is discretionary and competitive. Funding is limited, applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, and not every eligible application gets approved. Applications are scored on clarity of need, quantified impact on productivity and revenue, feasibility of the plan and budget, and overall completeness. A thin, vague submission gets declined even when the business is perfectly eligible. We write applications that score.

Third, the eligible-expense rules are narrow and unforgiving. Software licensing is reimbursable for twelve months only, not for multi-year terms. Vendor-delivered set-up, configuration and training qualify, but your own staff’s time does not. Marketing, website costs, consultancy, fixtures and stock are all out. Budgets have to be 50/50, all cash, all under operating expenses, in Canadian dollars, pre-tax, with vendor quotes attached. And approval is only half the job — you then have 30 days from execution of the funding agreement to purchase and implement, and 10 days from project completion to file the final claim, or the money doesn’t flow. We manage that end of it too.

Our fee is 20% of project value, it is paid by you, and it is not reimbursable under RMPG — consultancy is an ineligible expense under this program. We’re upfront about that. On a $10,000 project that’s $2,000 against $5,000 coming back to you. We work at the $10,000 level; below that the numbers stop making sense for either side, and we’ll tell you so on the call rather than take you through an application that isn’t worth your time.