Ottawa Renews the Women Entrepreneurship Loan Fund With $30 Million for Loans Up to $50,000

Ottawa has renewed the Women Entrepreneurship Loan Fund with $30 million. Minister Valdez announced it in Winnipeg on October 13, per the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada release. The fund lends up to $50,000 to a woman who owns a business, through four not-for-profit lenders, and all four are taking applications now. For the owner, this is a loan file with her name on it, not a grant to an organization.

Who can apply, and for how much

Loans run up to $50,000. The program page, updated September 29, says the four delivery organizations are "currently accepting applications for loans" and points you to their own websites. You apply to the lender, not to Ottawa.

The four lenders are Women's Enterprise Organizations of Canada (WEOC), the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association (NACCA), Nventure and Evol. NACCA serves Indigenous entrepreneurs in every province and territory, Nventure lists every province and territory, Evol serves Quebec, and WEOC works through provincial members such as PARO in northern Ontario. WEOC's Ontario member is PARO, in the north. In southern Ontario that leaves Nventure, and NACCA if you are Indigenous.

The eligibility test sits with the lender, not in the release. WEOC's page says the business must be over 50% women-owned, with gross annual revenue of no more than $2 million. The applicant must be 19 or older and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident living in Canada. There is no minimum credit score.

What WEOC's published terms say

WEOC sets its rate by risk profile and business stage, fixed for the term of the loan, at "Prime + 4% or less". Terms run up to 5 years. The administration fee is 2% of the loan, capped at $1,000, taken from the first disbursement, and nothing is charged if the loan is declined. Early repayment carries no penalty. Those are WEOC's numbers, not the program's. Read the other three lenders' pages before you compare.

A start-up brings a business plan with two years of cash-flow projections. An existing business brings a business overview, its growth plans and the same two years of projections. Once a loan is approved and the conditions are met, WEOC says funds go out by electronic transfer within 10 business days.

Where the $30 million sits against June's $59 million

The October 13 release calls the $30 million "renewed funding" for the Loan Fund. On June 22 in Lethbridge, the same minister announced $173.7 million over five years for the whole Women Entrepreneurship Strategy. That release put $59 million of it to the Loan Fund, and the program page repeats the $59 million. The October release does not say how the two figures relate.

The program page gives the fund's history in three lines. Budget 2021 created it with $55 million. March 2025 added $12 million, and June 2026 added the $59 million. Since its 2022 launch, the release says, the fund has made "nearly 1,600 loans totalling over $50 million".

The release quotes Valdez: "Women entrepreneurs are essential to building the strongest economy in the G7." It counts "more than 600,000 women entrepreneurs" supported by the strategy since 2018. The strategy's own page, updated September 24, puts the starting point flat: "only 17.8% of Canadian small and medium-sized businesses are owned by women".