Your Competitors Could Get $25 Million From Ottawa to Build a Food Hub. Will You?
On October 14, 2026, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) opened the first intake of the Food Hub Program, one of two programs under the $1 billion, 10-year Food-Link Fund that Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald and Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson announced on October 5. The window runs eight weeks and closes December 11, 2026 at 11:59 pm Pacific Time. AAFC may contribute up to $25 million per organization over the life of the program, which runs to March 31, 2037. The normal cost share is up to 50% from AAFC, rising to 60% when the majority of the applicant is owned or led by Indigenous Peoples, youth, women, visible minorities, persons with disabilities, or 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians. Contributions are non-repayable when a project's benefits accrue broadly, and repayable (interest-free, normally over up to 10 years) when a for-profit recipient is primarily building its own profitability. Total government funding cannot exceed 85% of the project, or 100% of eligible costs for Indigenous applicants. Eligible applicants include Canadian-incorporated processors, distributors, logistics firms, and independent grocers, along with co-operatives, industry associations, municipal entities with a commercial operating model, and First Nations, Inuit, and Métis organizations. Eligible work covers cold storage, aggregation, processing, packing and transport equipment, facility construction and retrofits, supply chain and e-commerce platforms, and feasibility studies. Two details matter more than most applicants realize: first-year costs are eligible back to June 11, 2026, and a processor or retailer simply adding its own capacity does not qualify as a standalone project; the project has to expand the regional hub network. The process starts with a single Food-Link Fund Expression of Interest; AAFC keeps hub projects and invites the strongest to a full application, while terminal-scale projects move to Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada's Food Terminal Fund. The practical first step is to register on AAFC's online portal and confirm your matching funds, because the program requires your financial contributions to be secured before it will consider an application.
The Food Hub Program is the distribution arm of the $3.2 billion National Food Security Strategy that Prime Minister Carney launched on June 11, and the government has been specific about what it expects. Minister MacDonald said the Fund will “help build the infrastructure we need to move food more efficiently.” The strategy itself sets a target of 10 food hubs established or expanded by the end of 2028, each showing lower average prices than the major grocers in its service area, and funding for 20 to 40 hubs in total. Competition with the five chains that control about 75% of grocery sales, lower prices, more Canadian food on Canadian shelves, and resilience when global supply chains break are the outcomes Ottawa is paying for. A food business that builds shared cold storage, trucking, or aggregation for independent grocers and local producers is not asking for a favour. It is delivering the strategy.
The gap is not eligibility. A wide range of for-profit, not-for-profit, and Indigenous organizations qualify. The gap is positioning. AAFC states plainly that projects with the greatest potential benefit get priority, that meeting every criterion creates no obligation to fund, and that the Minister retains discretion based on wider public policy considerations. Assessment weighs alignment with the National Food Security Strategy, Buy Canadian sourcing, underserved regions and populations, food waste, and the capacity to supply schools and other institutions. Program staff cannot comment on individual proposals during the intake. The files that move are the ones already understood by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food's office, by AAFC's senior program officials, and by the Prime Minister's Office, which owns this strategy, before the scoring begins.
The window is now. The first intake is eight weeks long, matching funds must be in place before you apply, and the government has publicly committed to having its first 10 hubs established or expanded by the end of 2028. The projects funded in this round will become the model the program is measured against and the examples ministers cite. Companies that engage now operate in a different environment than those who wait for a later intake and apply into a framework already shaped around someone else's project.
Northern Arc works with Canadian food processors, distributors, co-operatives, and independent grocers at the ministerial, departmental, and PMO level. If you want to understand where your organization fits across the Food Hub Program and the wider National Food Security Strategy, 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.