Half the cost of finding out whether
the Gulf is real for you may be funded.

What does CanExport SMEs actually pay, and what are the limits?

It funds up to 50% of eligible costs, with total project value between CAD $20,000 and $100,000 — so a maximum contribution of $50,000 against an equal amount of your own money. Contributions must be financial; in-kind does not count.

Two ceilings sit above that and are easy to miss. A company may receive a maximum of $99,999 in total CanExport funding per federal fiscal year, across all CanExport programmes rather than this one alone. And the federal stacking limit means total government assistance — federal, provincial, territorial, municipal, and crown corporations — cannot exceed 75% of total project costs. All Canadian government funding must be declared.

Funding is issued as either a grant or a contribution, and the programme decides which. A contribution is reimbursed after the fact: you fund the work, complete it, are invoiced, pay, then claim with detailed reporting. A grant is paid per fiscal year once the agreement is signed. Ask which you have been offered, because the cash-flow implications are opposite.

The 2026-27 window closes at 12:00 ET on 31 August 2026. Funding is limited and awarded competitively, so an application close to the deadline is competing for whatever remains.

Is my company eligible?

You must be established in Canada, for-profit, and an incorporated entity, LLP or cooperative with an active CRA business number — with 3 to 500 full-time employees and between $300,000 and $100 million in annual revenue declared in Canada in your last complete tax year, or the last 12 months if you file monthly or quarterly.

Sole proprietorships and limited partnerships are not eligible. You must also demonstrate meaningful economic ties and value to Canada, and legally own the goods and services you intend to export — the guide provides no licensing alternative.

Only one active CanExport SMEs project is permitted at a time, and the applicant itself must be invoiced and pay from its own business account — another entity cannot pay an expense on its behalf. GST and any refundable taxes, duties or rebates must be stripped out of what you claim.

Which market do I name — can I just say "the Gulf"?

No. The guide is explicit that a target market "is not a continent, geographical area or group of countries". You name individual countries — the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar — up to a maximum of five per project.

A project targeting any market other than the United States may not include the United States at all, and vice versa. For 2026-27 the programme prioritises non-US markets against the national objective of doubling Canada's non-US exports, so a UAE or Saudi project sits inside what the programme is trying to encourage.

Each country must also be new to you, tested separately rather than in aggregate. A market counts as new if, in your last full tax year — or the last 12 months if you file monthly or quarterly — your sales there were under $100,000, or, if above that, under 10% of your total combined domestic and international sales.

What can a consultant be paid for, and what is explicitly excluded?

Category G funds discrete research and facilitation: export market studies, feasibility studies, identification of key contacts, and organising B2B meetings. It explicitly excludes a consultant acting as your in-market representative.

This is the most important paragraph on the page, and the one that decides whether a claim survives. The guide lists as ineligible a "consultant serving as an in-market representative and acting as an extension of the applicant organization, executing strategies and managing on-the-ground activities in the target market", along with "contracts or mandates paid monthly, including ongoing or operational activities".

It also rules out retainer fees, monthly instalments and advance fees — the programme reimburses only for services rendered — and rules out commission as compensation, requiring that payment be based on time worked rather than on results. Consultant travel and per diem are not eligible either, and consultants hired through freelance platforms are excluded.

The practical consequence for working with us is worth stating plainly rather than leaving you to discover it. A CanExport-funded engagement with us is a defined, time-billed piece of research with a stated scope and a start and end date. It is not representation, it is not a monthly retainer, and it cannot be paid as a share of anything you later win. Those are things we do, and they are real, but they are a separate commercial conversation that this programme does not fund. If you need both, sequence them and take advice on the boundary — do not assume a second contract makes the first one safe.

• Eligible — export market studies covering demand, competition, regulation and entry channels
• Eligible — feasibility studies weighing your capability, cost and risk against the market
• Eligible — identifying key contacts, qualified leads, contact lists and company profiles
• Eligible — organising and facilitating B2B meeting programmes and matchmaking
• NOT eligible — acting as your in-market representative or an extension of your organisation
• NOT eligible — monthly mandates, retainers, advance fees, or commission on results

What must the consultant be, for the cost to qualify?

Independent and unaffiliated with your company, at arm's length and at reasonable value, holding expertise you do not have in-house, and based either in Canada or in one of your target markets.

With sufficient justification a consultant based in a third country may also qualify, so location is a condition rather than an advantage. Being in the target market does not confer any presumption of approval.

A written contract stating the scope of work and a cost estimate is required between the two parties, and the programme reserves the right to ask for it, along with evidence of the work performed. Expenses are ineligible where there is any indication of an employer-employee relationship or an affiliation, and you must disclose pre-existing relationships or affiliations involving consultants and foreign partners, since failure to do so can cause rejection or termination of an agreement.

Two timing rules catch people out. Fees must be incurred and paid for work performed inside the approved project timeline, and you must be able to demonstrate the work was done for the target market during that period or the claim may be judged ineligible. And costs incurred, invoiced or paid before the date the project is submitted are not eligible at all — never earlier than 1 April of the applicable fiscal year. Spending after you submit but before a decision is entirely at your own risk if the application is refused.

Does the defence sector get any particular emphasis?

Yes — emphasis, not preference. In line with the Government of Canada's Defence Industrial Strategy, CanExport SMEs for 2026-27 places greater emphasis on projects pursuing defence and dual-use technologies, goods and services. It does not reserve funding or guarantee approval.

There is one instruction attached that costs nothing to follow and is easy to miss: for applications targeting the defence market, the guide asks you to include the word "Defence" in the project title.

Approval also says nothing about export permissibility. You remain responsible for Canadian sanctions compliance, export controls and any required permits, and a market or activity is ineligible where those rules prohibit or materially limit it. For a defence or dual-use exporter that check belongs at the start, not after a market study.

What would a funded engagement with us actually produce?

A defined market study for one or more named countries: who the buyers and authorities actually are, how procurement runs there, what entry would cost, and a shortlist of contacts worth meeting — delivered inside a fixed scope and a fixed period.

The programme accepts a consultant based in Canada or in the target market, and either can do good work. What we bring is twenty years spent selling into this particular system: how procurement is actually structured, which institutions hold which decisions, and what a compliant submission is expected to contain. The value is in describing that accurately, not in claiming influence over it.

Tell us what you make, which end-user segment you are aiming at, and any programme you are already tracking. If the honest answer is that the market is not right for you, a feasibility study that says so is a cheaper answer than several years of trade shows.