FedDev Adds a Dividend Restriction to RTRI Liquidity Funding

FedDev Ontario added two questions to its Regional Tariff Response Initiative FAQ on September 22, and both attach conditions to liquidity money. Liquidity recipients are now told they are restricted from declaring or paying dividends while the funding runs, which reaches any owner-managed corporation in southern Ontario that pays its owners by dividend. The program's dollars and eligibility did not move.

The two streams and the ceilings opened on September 8, ground covered in PFG's piece on the expanded program. What moved since is the fine print and the paperwork.

Two new FAQ questions put conditions on liquidity money

PFG's filed capture of the frequently asked questions page records eleven questions, and a re-read on September 21 counted eleven. A live read on September 28 returns thirteen, on a page dated September 22.

The new question 7 asks what conditions come with liquidity funding. The answer says recipients must use the money to maintain employment and operations in Canada, as set out in their contribution agreement. Then it adds a reporting duty.

Changes to a recipient's liquidity needs must be notified to FedDev Ontario, and that notice "may result in the funding being reduced, terminated or repaid." Question 7 also states recipients are "restricted from declaring or paying dividends, while receiving liquidity assistance."

Question 13 goes further. It says liquidity recipients "are restricted from declaring or paying dividends during the period of their funding assistance." Payments to a parent company, subsidiary, affiliate or other non-arm's-length entity "may be restricted, depending on the circumstances of the payments and pre-established practices."

One exception is named: in "exceptional circumstances," pre-established dividend payments to an employee in lieu of salary costs may be considered. The other eleven answers read as filed.

A second build of the application form is live

The how to apply page is dated September 25 and links the form at a new file name, ENFormRTRI.pdf. PFG's entry records the linked form as RTRIFormEN.pdf. Both addresses served a form on September 28.

Both print the same identifier, FDO0091E, and the same form title. The file at the new address was created September 11, the file at the old address on September 4. A byte comparison run September 28 found them different.

Which fields changed between the builds is not established. A form saved from the old address in early September is not the build the page hands out now.

The session window closed and the hub dropped the invitation

All four information sessions, the last of them September 24, are now marked "Session Complete." Nothing remains open for registration.

The hub, also dated September 24, no longer carries the words "Information sessions" or a "Register here" link. PFG's September 8 capture of that page carries both.

The money and the tests are unchanged

A live check on September 28 found the terms as published: Liquidity Assistance still up to $2 million non-repayable at up to 50% of eligible costs, Pivot Projects still up to $1 million non-repayable. The ceilings hold.

Who can apply still carries its September 16 date. Intake still reads "Accepting applications," with no closing date published.