• be a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant and be a permanent resident of Québec;
• be between the age of 18 and 35;
• have relevant experience or training in relation to the project;
• commit to work full time for the business.

Financial assistance can apply to one of the following components :

Feasibility or other study in preparation for creating a business, provided that the project is considered admissible under the present program.

Creation by the entrepreneur of a first legally incorporated business. A first business project must meet the following conditions :

• Be based on a business plan covering the first two years of operation and demonstrating that the company has been created, has good chances of being viable and profitable;
• Create at least two permanent jobs or the equivalent in person/year, in the first two years following the project starting date;
• Include capital expenditures;
• Be partly funded by the entrepreneur’s equity;
• The entrepreneur must demonstrate to the LDC that the financial assistance is essential to the execution of his project.

Allow applicants who benefit from a financial contribution for launching a first business to receive relevant training for carrying out the project.

• Admissible expenses are professional fees, expert costs and other costs incurred by the entrepreneur for consulting or specialised services required to conduct the studies;
• Professional and consulting services fees provided by a business in which the entrepreneur holds an interest are not eligible for financial assistance.

• Capital expenditures such as land, building, equipment, machinery, mobile equipment, incorporation fees and any other expenses of the same nature except for goodwill costs;
• Purchase of technologies (know-how, license or manufacturing agreement, patent), softwares or software packages and any other expenses of the same nature;
• Working capital needs related strictly to the business’s operations calculated for the first year of operation and excluding the owners’ salaries.

• Admissible expenses are registration fees, instructional material and other fees required for the entrepreneur’s participation in approved training activities.

• Maximum of $ 2000 per promoter (per component 1- Training/Project Development and 2- Project Execution);
• Maximum of $ 4000 per project (per component 1- Training/Project Development and 2- Project Execution);
• Financial assistance is in the form of a non refundable contribution;
• Combined financial assistance from the Québec and federal governments and the LDC cannot exceed 75% of the admissible expenses in the case of a project financed under the Business Project Development component, and 50% of the admissible expenses in the case of a project financed under the Creation of a First Business component. For the Entrepreneur Training component, financial assistance can cover the total admissible expenses.

These limitations apply to all funding applications.

• Expenses for the execution of a project that are made before the date of reception by the LDC of the official application are not admissible;
• The allocated financial assistance cannot be used for an organisation’s operating expenses, debt servicing, future loans repayment or financing an already completed project.