What a Prairie Tariff Application Needs: A Business Plan, Two Years of Statements, Six Months of Interims

The Prairie tariff application wants a business plan.

That is the first thing to know, and it is the thing southern Ontario does not ask for. On October 6, PrairiesCan posted a FAQ for Ottawa's tariff program in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and question 8 lists what you attach: a business plan or pitch deck, financial statements for the past two years, interim statements for at least the last six months, your incorporation papers, evidence of the tariff hit, and proof of every dollar coming from somewhere other than PrairiesCan. Payroll support adds payroll records and a cash flow forecast that shows the gap.

Most of that is accounting. The plan and the forecast are the two pieces an owner-run company usually has to build from nothing, and the intake runs until December 31, 2028 or until the money is committed, whichever comes first.

The list, in the order you will hit it

Incorporation documents and proof that the person submitting can sign for the company. Bylaws, articles, a board minute. This is the easy one.

A business plan or pitch deck. The FAQ wants it to cover the company, the management team and the board, and the project if there is one.

Financial statements for the past two years, and interim statements for at least the last six months. The FAQ does not say who has to prepare them.

Evidence of the tariff hit. The FAQ's own example is export sales figures.

Confirmation of every dollar not coming from PrairiesCan. Bank statements, the unused part of a line of credit, a signed term sheet, a letter of intent. Forecast revenue and receivables do not count toward a project's funding; the Apply page said so in a footnote in September. Payroll support is different, and that is covered below.

For payroll support, three more things. Payroll records. A forecast that puts a number on the shortfall. The jobs you will keep and the bills you will keep paying.

The plan is the piece most owners do not have

In southern Ontario a business plan is an optional attachment. In the Prairies it is on the required list, for payroll support as much as for a project.

The applicant guide PrairiesCan published in September spells out what the plan has to cover: what you sell and to whom, who runs the company and how it is governed, the market and the competition, your pricing and sales approach, and for a project, how you will carry it out and what it does to revenue and costs. The same guide asks for a forecast income statement and cash flow for three to five years, with the assumptions written down.

The FAQ is newer than the guide and says less, and it sends you to the guide for the document details. Build to the guide.

Two things to know before you pay someone to write it. The guide names business plan preparation as a cost the program will generally not cover, so the plan is your money, not project money. And the application has you attest that nobody was paid a fee that depends on approval, so a plan writer who works for a cut of the funding puts your signature on a false statement.

A plan the funder can check against your statements is the only kind worth paying for.

PFG has written over 1,200 business plans since 2010, and the ones that hold up with a funder are built from the numbers, not around them.

Two years of statements and six months of interims

Two years of year-end statements plus six months of interims is more than most owner-run companies have on hand. A balance sheet and a tax return for each year is the usual set.

The Prairies pages do not ask for an outside accountant and do not mention audited or reviewed statements. Southern Ontario does: its list wants statements prepared by an outside accountant, prefers an audit or review, asks for last month's payroll, and wants a 12-month cash flow forecast. The full Ontario list is in what the tariff program asks for in southern Ontario. The Prairies trade the outside-accountant rule for a business plan, 12 months of payroll remittances and a forecast that runs three to five years out.

The statements still carry the file. The revenue test is at least $1 million in one of the last two fiscal years, read off those statements. The forecast starts from the last interim, and the plan has to describe the business the statements show. If the three disagree, the reader notices.

This is the same work PFG's accounting side does on year-end statements for franchise operators. If your last two years are a tax return and a balance sheet, that is the first job, and it is the slow one.

Payroll support runs on twelve months of remittances

Payroll support is worked out mainly as half your average monthly payroll, for up to 12 months, ending by March 31, 2028. It never goes above what you can show you need. It never goes above $2 million.

The FAQ says payroll records. The September guide says payroll remittance reports for the last 12 months, plus 12 months of the other essential bills, rent, utilities, insurance and property tax. Pull the 12 months. If the FAQ turns out to be the lighter ask, you have lost an afternoon.

Then the forecast. The guide says the half of your costs the program does not pay has to be shown as covered by forecast revenue, financing you already have, working capital or other government money, and the forecast is where you show it. A forecast that shows an unused line of credit covering payroll argues against its own request.

The portal account takes up to 10 business days

There is no form to download. The application lives in an online portal, you sign in with CanadaLogin, and the account belongs to the company, not to you. PrairiesCan emails a portal agreement and a client authorization form, you sign and return it, and the account can take up to 10 business days to be approved from the day they get it back.

Open the account the day you decide to apply. Build the file while you wait.

Two more lines from the program's own pages. PrairiesCan will not assess an application that is incomplete, or one that was saved and never submitted. And it calls the intake competitive, which means a complete file gets read and not every file that gets read gets an offer.

Decisions usually come within 90 business days of a complete application. Plan cash on that clock, not on the day you press submit.

What to do this month

Check the sector line first. The FAQ says retail, restaurants, hotels and other local consumer services are generally not eligible, and a month spent on a plan for a program you cannot enter is a month gone.

Then pull the last two year-ends and the last six months of interims and look at what you actually have. Pull 12 months of payroll remittances and 12 months of rent, utilities and insurance. Open the portal account.

Build the forecast from the last interim, and the plan from the forecast. If the $1 million line or the tariff test is the open question, PFG's tariff check runs those first, before anyone spends a month on a plan.