Loans from $250,000 to $5 million, interest-only for the first three years. It is the fastest money in the federal tariff package and the only one you have to pay back — which makes it the one most likely to be a mistake.
Status as of 19 September 2026. Pivot to Grow is a $500 million stream announced as part of Ottawa’s $7.5 billion support package for tariff-affected businesses, alongside the counter-tariffs that came into force on 8 September 2026. It is delivered by the Business Development Bank of Canada. We do not have a published application URL, form name or intake date for it, and we will not invent one — go to BDC directly and confirm current terms and availability before you plan around this money.
Pivot to Grow is a lending stream, not a grant. BDC lends between $250,000 and $5 million, and the first 36 months are interest-only — you service the interest and the principal waits. A revenue threshold of $1 million applies.
The purpose is in the name. It is meant for businesses changing what they do because the tariffs made the old version unprofitable: a new supplier, a new line, a new market, the equipment or working capital to get there.
BDC is a bank. That is the single most useful thing to understand before you start. The money is federal and the intent is supportive, but the process is a credit assessment, and the question at the end of it is whether you can pay it back.
Who qualifies
A revenue threshold of $1 million applies, so the first test is arithmetic. If your annual revenue is under $1 million, you do not qualify and no amount of a good story changes that. Read the last section of this page instead — there are better-suited programs, and we would rather point you at them than waste your week.
Beyond the threshold, two things have to be true. You have to be affected by the tariffs, and you have to be creditworthy for the amount you are asking for.
Who should not apply:
- Anyone needing less than $250,000. That is the floor. If you need $80,000 of working capital, this instrument does not scale down to you.
- Businesses under the $1 million revenue threshold. Stated again because it is the most common wasted application.
- Businesses that cannot service the debt from month 37. Interest-only for 36 months is a real benefit and a real trap. The principal does not disappear during those three years.
- Businesses whose problem is solvency, not liquidity. Borrowing to cover a structural loss converts a tariff problem into a debt problem, and does it on a three-year fuse.
- Businesses with no plan for the money. “Pivot” implies a destination. If you cannot name it, you are asking for an overdraft.
Terms and eligibility criteria move. Confirm the current threshold, amounts and conditions with BDC rather than with us.
What you need before you start
This is a lending file. Assemble it before you make contact, because a bank that asks twice for the same document has already priced you.
Proof you clear $1 million
Financial statements showing annual revenue at or above the threshold. This is the first thing checked and the cheapest one to fail on.
Who you are
Legal name, your 15-digit business number, incorporation and ownership documents, and identification for the principals.
Evidence the tariffs hit you
Which inputs or products are captured, the 8-digit tariff classification for each, volumes and values, and landed cost before and after 8 September 2026.
Three years of financials
Year-end statements, ideally reviewed or audited, plus interim statements to the most recent month closed.
A cash flow forecast past month 37
Monthly, four years out, showing the principal payments starting and the business absorbing them. This is the document that decides the file.
Your existing debt schedule
Every facility, lender, balance, rate, payment and security registered against the business. Omitting one does not hide it.
A use-of-funds statement
What the money buys, in dollars, with quotes where it is equipment. Not a category — a list.
The pivot itself, in writing
What changes, why it is more profitable than what you do now, and what evidence you have that customers exist for it.
The third card is the one businesses cannot produce, and it is the one that converts a vague hardship story into a lending case. Most owners know their costs rose. Very few can name the classification, the rate and the monthly dollar figure — which is the only version a credit file can use.
The steps, in order
- Check the two numbers first. Is your annual revenue at or above $1 million, and do you need at least $250,000? If either answer is no, stop here and read the last section.
- Quantify the tariff impact. Which inputs are captured, under which 8-digit classification, at 15%, 25% or 50%, and what it costs you per month. Every later step is built on this figure.
- Name the pivot. One paragraph: what you will do differently, and why that is a better business than the one the tariffs broke. If it takes you three pages, you have not decided yet.
- Build the repayment case. Model the loan with interest-only for 36 months and full payments after. If the forecast only works while payments are interest-only, do not apply.
- Assemble the financial file. Statements, interims, debt schedule, forecast, use of funds. Have it complete before the first conversation.
- Go to BDC directly and confirm the current terms. Amounts, the threshold, the interest-only period, security requirements and whether the stream is open. Confirm all of it with the bank, not with a third party that found you first.
- Submit and expect credit questions. They will be about margins, concentration of customers, the realism of the forecast and what security is available. Answer each with a document.
- Read the offer before you sign. Rate, security, covenants, personal guarantees and what happens at month 37. A supportive program is still a loan agreement.
Be honest with yourself first
What makes applications fail. Missing the $1 million revenue threshold, which is simply fatal. A forecast that works only during the interest-only window. A tariff impact asserted rather than documented. And a use of funds that is really a hole — lenders can tell the difference between money that buys capacity and money that buys time.
How long it realistically takes. Faster than a contribution program, slower than you want. Plan on weeks rather than days once your file is complete, and understand that most of the elapsed time will be you producing documents, not BDC reading them. A business that walks in with three years of statements, a debt schedule and a credible forecast moves several times faster than one that starts assembling them after the first call.
Who should not apply. If revenue is under $1 million, you do not qualify. If you need under $250,000, this is the wrong size. And if the honest reason for borrowing is that the business does not currently make money, more debt is the wrong answer — look at the non-repayable contributions under the Regional Tariff Response Initiative, at duty relief or drawback if your goods are re-exported, or at remission if a critical input genuinely has no substitute outside the United States.
Or is the other one yours?
These two get confused constantly, because both are described as tariff support. One is debt and one is not.
This program
Debt, $250,000 to $5 million.
Interest-only for 36 months, $1 million revenue threshold. A credit process, so relatively quick — and you pay every dollar back.
Regional Tariff Response Initiative
Money you do not repay, for a project.
Up to $3 million non-repayable, plus liquidity support up to $2 million, through the regional development agencies. Slower and more paperwork, but nothing to service.
How to apply for the Regional Tariff Response Initiative →
Where we fit
We are a software studio in Nanaimo, not a grant consultancy and not a loan broker. We do not file applications, we do not write them for you, and we take no percentage of anything you borrow or receive.
What we do is the work that comes first. A lending file needs the tariff impact stated as a number, not a grievance: which of your inputs are actually captured, under which classification, at what rate, and what that costs per month. That research is unglamorous and almost impossible to do from inside a business you are also running. It is also the analysis that tells you whether the pivot you are proposing is worth borrowing $2 million for, or whether a cheaper change gets you most of the way.
Questions people ask
What is the minimum revenue to qualify?
A revenue threshold of $1 million applies. Below that, this stream is not available to you, however badly the tariffs have hurt your business. Confirm the current threshold with BDC, because these terms are adjusted from time to time.
How much can I borrow?
From $250,000 to $5 million. The floor matters as much as the ceiling: if you need less than $250,000, this is not the right instrument and asking for more than you need in order to reach the minimum is a bad idea.
What does interest-only for 36 months actually mean?
For the first three years you pay interest and no principal, which keeps the monthly cost low while a pivot is still being built. In month 37 principal payments begin. The debt was never smaller — the repayment was deferred. Model that fourth year before you sign anything.
Is this a grant?
No. It is a loan from a bank, on supportive terms. If what you need is money you do not repay, the Regional Tariff Response Initiative offers non-repayable contributions up to $3 million and is the better place to spend your effort.
My revenue is under $1 million. What else is there?
The Regional Tariff Response Initiative, which is non-repayable and does not carry this threshold. The Duties Relief Program or duty drawback if your goods are eventually exported. Tariff remission if a critical input genuinely cannot be sourced from Canadian or other non-US suppliers. And CanExport SMEs, worth up to $50,000 toward entering a new export market — its most recent intake closed on 31 August 2026 and applications were not open at the time of writing, so the useful move there is to have the plan finished before the next one opens.
Can I use this alongside the Regional Tariff Response Initiative?
They are different instruments from different institutions, and businesses do combine debt with a contribution. Disclose each to the other. Both will ask what other support you are receiving, and a contribution can change how much you need to borrow.
Related
- Every federal tariff support program, indexed
- How to apply for tariff remission in Canada
- How to apply for the Regional Tariff Response Initiative
- Back to the tariff hub
InfiniteUp is a four-person software studio in Nanaimo, BC. 40+ apps shipped, 60,000+ installs, 117 countries. See our work.
InfiniteUp does not administer BDC Pivot to Grow, is not affiliated with the Business Development Bank of Canada, and takes nothing from the program. Program terms, amounts, thresholds and intake windows change — confirm current details directly with BDC before you rely on anything here. This is operational guidance from a software studio, not legal, financial or tax advice. Last reviewed 19 September 2026.