wiki_ghostguild/content/wiki/ontario-hub--ontario-funding-landscape.md

title	collection	path	parentDocument	outlineId	updatedAt	createdBy
Ontario Funding Landscape	Ontario Hub	Ontario Hub/Ontario Funding Landscape	null	e8c241c0-7c0f-45c8-919f-e4b3affc8c42	2026-03-16T16:06:00.507Z	Jennie R.F.

• Explain ideas for experimental R&D

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OIDMTC details, Ontario Creates funding programs, any provincial co-op incentives, GTA-specific resources. Feeds into Session 6 content.

OIDMTC 40% labour credit

Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit is an extremely valuable incentive for ON studios.

(Note: studios can claim 3 years from fiscal year end retroactively!!)

It provides:

• a refundable tax credit of 40% on eligible Ontario labour expenditures for studios that develop and self-publish their own games (weirdly called "non-specified products")
• up to $100,000 in marketing and distribution expenditures per product
• Fee-for-service work earns a 35% credit.

There is no annual cap on eligible labour expenditures

Administered through Ontario Creates (which issues a certificate of eligibility) and the CRA (which processes thje credit on the T2).

Studios must apply within 18 months of the tax year in which a product was completed

Administration fee is 0.15% of eligibile expenditures ($1,000-$10,000)

There are 4 streams, with different requirements.

1. Non-specified (own IP, self-published)

   1. 40%
   2. 80/25 rule; product must be completed; revenmue stream required.

2. Specified (fee-for-service)

   1. 35%
   2. 80/25 rule; arm's-length purchaser; product completed

3. Qualifying digital game corporation

   1. 35%
   2. Min $1M Ontario labour over 36 months; product need not be completed

4. Specialized digital game corporation

   1. Min $500K Ontario labour/year; 80%+ payroll or 90%+ revenue from games; annual filing

The 80/25 rule

• 80% of total dev labour must be performed in Ontario
• 25% must be paid as wages to employees of the claiming corporation (not contractors)
  • This second requirement is particularly important for co-ops. Worker-members must be on payroll receiving T4 slips to count toward the 25% employee test. If a co-op treats its members primarily as independent contractors, it will likely fail this threshold.
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Stacking OIDMTC

SR&ED

Studios can claim OIDMTC and SR&ED credits in the same year, but cannot claim the same labour expenditures under both programs.

Approach ideas:

• Allocate experimental R&D work[^1] to SR&ED and regular game dev work to OIDMTC

SR&ED provides a 35% refundable credit for CCPCs on the first $6 million in qualifyinf expenditures.

Studios should also claim the Ontario Innovation Tax Credit (OITC), which provides an additional 10% refundable credit on SR&ED expenditures in Ontario

Now includes capital expenditures - for equipment

SR&ED credits are not considered "government assistance" that would reduce OIDMTC eligible expenditures

NRC IRAP

NRC IRAP provides non-repayable grants for innovative R&D projects with clear milestones (vs sr&ed which is for broader annual activities). You must be able to cover 20% of wage costs and 50% of contractor costs.

You can claim IRAP on a subset of your work, then claim tax credits on everything

Important: Requires pre-approval before project start. Cannot be claimed retroactively. Not all work qualififies. It needs to be "innovative" risky R&D. You really need to build trust with your assigned Industrial Technology Advisor.

Canada Media Fund

Experimental Stream:

• Development funding: Up to $15,000
• Production funding: Up to $250,000
• Marketing funding: Up to $30,000

Approach:

1. Use CMF for production costs (voice acting, music licensing, marketing, equipment rental)
2. Use OIDMTC/SR&ED for internal labour costs

Eligibility

• Canadian ownership, control, and key personnel
• Innovative and experimental
• Cultural or educational value
• Public distribution – requires digital distributor
• Provide very detailed project plan and budget

Provincial grants

Ontario Creates

• Interactive Digital Media Fund (IDM Fund): Up to $250,000 for development/production
• Market Development Programs: Travel, marketing, partnership support

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Ontario Arts Council

Toronto Arts Council

Youth employment programs

Eligibility

• For-profit cooperative corporations can likely claim it.
  • legislation requires only "Canadian corporation" status without specifying incorporation type, though co-ops must ensure for-profit structure, employee treatment of worker-members (for the 25% employee test), and should seek professional confirmation given no explicit co-op guidance exists in the program.

Functional cooperative legal framework

• federal patronage dividend deductions

Dense GTA support ecosystem

• Ontario Creates funding up to $300K
• But EVERYTHING designed with standard corporations in mind
  • Coops are not excluded, but they are never explicitly addressed. This creates ambiguity that studios need to resolve with program admins and tax/accountants.
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What (Ontario) coops should do

• Coops should incorporate as for-profit under CCA if they want to take advantage of any of these opportunities.
• Track EVERY expense carefully from the first day of development - start nOW!!
• Put workers on payroll – must be employees not contractors to claim credits
• Join the OCA and CWCF for development support and the Tenacity Works loan fund
• Do Futures Forward training to unlock Ontario Creates (IF less than 3 years in IDM)
• Begin claiming OIDMTC from the first eligible tax year
• Carefully separate SR&ED-eligible experimental work
• Get in touch with program admins at OC EARLYT to confirm eligibility before applying
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[^1]: Work must address technological uncertainty through systematic investigation