There is no national secondary suite grant in Canada. The federal $80,000 Canada Secondary Suite Loan Program was cancelled and never launched. What remains is a mix of federal tax measures, a CMHC refinancing route, and a small number of provincial and municipal programmes — most of which are closed, waitlisted, or aimed at accessibility rather than suite construction.
- The federal $80,000 loan was cancelled — there is no application process and no waitlist
- CMHC’s refinance product is the real federal route: up to 90% of as-improved value, up to 4 units
- B.C.’s $40,000 forgivable loan closed to new applications after 30 March 2025
- Calgary’s $10,000 incentive is waitlisted and covers only suites inside the main dwelling
- Several programmes widely listed as “suite grants” — SHARP, RAMP, RAHA, HRS — are accessibility or energy programmes, not suite funding
Status verified 23 July 2026. This page describes fast-moving programmes — confirm current status with the administering body before relying on any row below.
Search for a secondary suite grant in Canada and you will find dozens of pages listing generous-sounding programmes. Work through them and you’ll discover most are closed, some never opened, and several were never suite programmes to begin with.
That is not the fault of the people writing them, exactly — the landscape genuinely changed a great deal between 2024 and 2026, and a lot of content simply hasn’t caught up. But it wastes real time. This page is a dated status check on every programme homeowners actually search for, with what to do instead.
Is there a secondary suite grant in Canada?
No — not a national one, and not in the sense most people mean.
There is no federal programme that hands a homeowner money to build a secondary suite. What exists instead falls into three categories:
- Financing — CMHC’s refinance product, which improves how much you can borrow rather than giving you anything
- Tax measures — the MHRTC for qualifying multigenerational renovations, and the GST rental rebate for four-plus-unit projects
- Fee relief — development charge exemptions and deferrals, which reduce what you pay a municipality
That third category is genuinely underrated. In parts of the GTA, the development charges avoided on an additional unit can exceed what most grant programmes ever paid out. It just doesn’t feel like a grant, because nobody sends you a cheque.
What happened to the $80,000 federal loan?
The Canada Secondary Suite Loan Program would have allowed homeowners to borrow up to $80,000 at a low rate to build a suite. It was announced in 2024 and expanded in that December’s Fall Economic Statement.
It was cancelled and never became operational. Budget 2025 confirmed it would not be implemented. The stated reason was overlap with CMHC’s insured refinance product, which had launched on 15 January 2025 and achieves a comparable goal through the mortgage system.
There is a knock-on effect worth knowing about, covered in the B.C. row below: British Columbia wound down its own provincial programme partly because Ottawa had committed to a national one. Ottawa then cancelled it. B.C. homeowners ended up with neither.
Our full breakdown of the cancelled programme covers what replaced it in detail.
Which programmes are actually live right now?
| Programme | Jurisdiction | Amount | Status (23 Jul 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada Secondary Suite Loan | Federal | $80,000 | ❌ Cancelled — never launched |
| CMHC Refinance | Federal | Up to 90% LTV, ≤4 units | ✅ Live (since 15 Jan 2025) |
| MHRTC | Federal | Up to $50,000 of expenditures | ✅ Live — multigenerational only |
| GST/HST rental rebate | Federal | Federal GST relief | ✅ Live — 4-unit minimum |
| BC Secondary Suite Incentive | B.C. | $40,000 forgivable | ❌ Closed to new applications after 30 Mar 2025 |
| BC RAHA | B.C. | Up to $20,000 lifetime | ✅ Live — ⚠️ accessibility only |
| Calgary Secondary Suite Incentive | Calgary | Up to $10,000 | ⏸ Waitlisted since 24 Jun 2026 — main dwelling only |
| Alberta SHARP | Alberta | Up to $40,000 loan | ✅ Live — ⚠️ seniors’ home repair, not suites |
| Alberta RAMP | Alberta | $12,000/yr, $24,000/10yr | ✅ Live — ⚠️ accessibility only |
| Ontario HER+ | Ontario | — | ❌ Closed Feb 2024 → replaced by HRS |
| Ontario Home Renovation Savings | Ontario | Up to $5,000 / $10,000 | ✅ Live to Nov 2026 — ⚠️ energy efficiency only |
| Peel “My Home” second unit | Peel Region | Up to $30,000 forgivable | ⏸ On hold — pilot ended Jun 2024, under review |
| Bill 23 DC exemption | Ontario | Varies — often substantial | ✅ Live — 2nd and 3rd units |
Read the ⚠️ rows carefully. They are the reason most grant lists are misleading.
Why do so many “grant lists” mislead?
Three distinct failure modes, and it’s worth being able to spot each.
They list dead programmes as live. The $80,000 federal loan is the biggest offender, but B.C.’s SSIP and Ontario’s HER+ appear constantly as current. A programme announced with fanfare generates far more content than its quiet cancellation does, so the stale version out-ranks the correction.
They list programmes that aren’t about suites. This is the subtler error. Alberta’s SHARP is a seniors’ home-equity loan for repairs to their own residence. Alberta’s RAMP and B.C.’s RAHA are accessibility grants with narrow medical and income eligibility. Ontario’s HRS is an energy-efficiency rebate for insulation, windows and heating. All four are real and useful — none of them funds building a rental suite, and presenting them as suite grants sends people down a dead end.
They quote a headline number without the conditions. Calgary’s $10,000 is real, but it’s waitlisted and applies only to suites inside the main dwelling — not backyard or detached suites. Peel’s $30,000 was real, but the pilot ended in June 2024. The number is the easy part to copy; the conditions are what decide whether you get anything.
The practical test: before relying on any programme, open the administering body’s own page and look for a date. If the page doesn’t tell you when it was last updated, treat it as unverified.
What can I use in my province?
British Columbia. No homeowner suite grant since March 2025. What B.C. gives you instead is the most permissive zoning in the country — the SSMUH rules require a minimum of three units on parcels of 280 m² or smaller and four on larger ones, rising to six near frequent transit. RAHA is available for accessibility adaptations if you or a household member qualifies.
Alberta. No provincial suite grant. Calgary’s municipal incentive is waitlisted and restricted to suites inside the main dwelling; Edmonton has no municipal suite grant but has unusually permissive zoning. Alberta’s real advantage is structural rather than programmatic — no provincial sales tax and no Ontario-style development charges, which for many projects is worth more than any grant would have been.
Ontario. No provincial homeowner suite grant. The meaningful support is the Bill 23 development charge and parkland dedication exemption on second and third units, plus municipal deferrals such as Toronto’s on rear-yard suites. The energy programme (HRS) is live but funds efficiency upgrades, not suite construction.
Our service areas page covers the markets we work in, and the financing and grants guide goes deeper on each.
What if there’s no grant for me?
For most Canadian homeowners building a suite right now, there isn’t one — and it’s worth reframing what that means rather than treating it as a dead end.
The support has shifted from grants to leverage and fee relief. Practically:
- CMHC’s refinance route can access far more than any grant paid, if you have equity. Up to 90% of as-improved value on properties with up to four units, subject to owner or close-relative occupancy and the funds going to construction.
- Fee exemptions reduce your actual cost. Ontario’s DC exemption on second and third units is real money avoided.
- Tax credits after the fact — the MHRTC where the occupant qualifies.
- The zoning changes themselves are arguably the largest transfer of value here. Being permitted to add three or four units as-of-right, without a rezoning fight, changed what properties are worth. That is worth more to most owners than a one-time cheque.
The honest summary: Canada decided to make suites easier to permit and easier to borrow against, rather than easier to be paid for. Whether a project works now depends more on your equity and your lot than on any programme.
Find out what your property qualifies for
Because the support landscape has moved from grants to financing and fee relief, the question that decides most projects isn’t what you can apply for — it’s what your property can support and what it will be worth once built.
HouseLyft’s free property assessment covers what your lot permits and which configurations are realistic, so you can size the financing question properly. Request your free report.
Status verified 23 July 2026. This guide describes government programmes in general terms and is not financial, tax or legal advice. Several programmes listed here have already been cancelled, closed or placed on hold, and others may change without notice — confirm current status directly with the administering body before relying on it.
Checked by Lee Yousaf, Founder