Is Your Business Being Affected by Tariffs? Ottawa Tripled RTRI Funding to $3 Million and Added Liquidity Support
On September 8, 2026, the federal government opened applications for the expanded Regional Tariff Response Initiative (RTRI), and the terms changed in ways that matter. Eligible businesses can now receive up to $3 million in non-repayable support, made up of up to $2 million for demonstrated liquidity needs and up to $1 million for pivot projects. The liquidity stream is new. It covers up to 50% of eligible costs for up to 12 months, ending no later than March 31, 2028, and it sits alongside pivot project funding that must be completed by March 31, 2029, with repayable funding available for larger transformative projects. A business can apply for either stream or both.
The expansion is part of the $7.5 billion package announced on August 25, the same day Ottawa said it would match new U.S. tariffs on $27.6 billion of Canadian goods, dollar for dollar, with Canadian counter-tariffs taking effect September 8. The package added $1.5 billion to RTRI, bringing the initiative to $3.45 billion nationally, delivered through Canada's regional development agencies. It also created a $2 billion Canada Strong Diversification Fund, a $500 million liquidity stream within BDC's Pivot to Grow program, and a lower $1 million minimum revenue requirement for BDC's tariff-related programs. To qualify for RTRI, a business must be incorporated and for-profit, have at least $1 million in annual revenue in one or both of its last two fiscal years, have been viable before tariffs, and show that it has been affected by trade disruption. That can mean operating in a sector hit by Section 338 or Section 232 tariffs (including indirect exposure as a supply chain partner to an affected exporter), earning 25% or more of revenue from goods ultimately exported to the U.S., or absorbing significant cost increases, supply chain disruption, or lost customers. Current RTRI recipients may also be eligible for the new liquidity assistance, provided it does not duplicate costs already covered under an existing agreement. The practical first step is to confirm which regional development agency serves your province and which intake applies.
The government has been explicit about what it wants this money to do. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said the counter-tariffs and support package “will protect workers, farmers, families, and businesses as we build a stronger, more resilient, and more diversified Canadian economy,” and the minister responsible for PrairiesCan, the Honourable Eleanor Olszewski, said the enhanced initiative will help businesses “make the investments needed to grow, compete, and reach new markets all across the globe.” Diversification, resilience, domestic supply chains, and jobs are the outcomes the government is paying for. A company that frames its file in those terms is not asking for a favour. It is delivering the result the program was built to produce.
The gap is not eligibility. Most tariff-exposed companies with $1 million in revenue can make the case that they qualify. The gap is positioning. RTRI is delivered by regional development agencies through a discretionary process, and the files that move fastest are the ones already understood at the program level, and by the office of the responsible minister, before a decision is made. The Canada Strong Diversification Fund adds to this: Ottawa has said the Fund will work closely with regional development agency programming for project intake and triage, so the same relationships that shape an RTRI decision shape what reaches the Diversification Fund as well.
The window is now. RTRI intake in the Prairies is open until December 31, 2028 or until all available funding is committed, and the $3.45 billion envelope is finite. Liquidity support ends March 31, 2028, and pivot projects must be finished by March 31, 2029, so every file is already working against a fixed clock. Companies that engage early are operating in a different environment than companies that wait and apply into an envelope that has already been drawn down around them.
Northern Arc works with Canadian manufacturers and exporters at the ministerial, Regional Development Agency, and PMO level. If you want to understand where your company fits across RTRI and the wider federal tariff response, and what positioning your file before the funds are committed looks like in practice, request your briefing and we will deliver it within 48 hours.