Can the Ontario Job Grant Pay for AI Training? (2026 Rules)
The Ontario Job Grant can cover up to $10,000 per trainee for AI training, but only from listed provider types and only if approved before training starts.
How to check any course against the grant's rules before you apply, and the order of steps that keeps a claim eligible. You will also see a worked cost split for ten trainees.
The Ontario Job Grant (OJG) is a cost-sharing program from Ontario's Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development that pays part of the cost of third-party training for an employer's staff. It is the redesigned Canada-Ontario Job Grant, renamed in May 2026 (Employment Ontario), with application guidelines effective May 1, 2026 (Ontario Job Grant guidelines).
Quick Answer
Yes, if the employer and its trainees meet the program's rules, the course comes from an eligible provider, and the ministry approves the funding before training starts. In our reading, the grant pays for a job-focused AI course and stops short of fitting that course to your company.
The guidelines do not mention AI (Ontario Job Grant guidelines). The grant lets employers choose the skills to train, and it focuses on occupation-specific skills (Employment Ontario).
To train existing staff, a company with fewer than 100 employees pays at least one-sixth of eligible costs in cash, and a company with 100 or more employees pays at least half (Ontario Job Grant guidelines). The grant can pay the remaining eligible costs, up to $10,000 per trainee (Employment Ontario). Wages are not covered, and neither are curriculum development or training through business consulting services (Ontario Job Grant guidelines).
If you are writing the AI rules that training will teach, the free AI use policy checklist lists the fourteen areas a first policy should cover.
Why the grant matters for AI skills
AI training is still uncommon in Canada. Only 24% of the 1,025 people surveyed in Canada between November 2024 and January 2025 said they had received training in AI, in a study led by Professor Nicole Gillespie, Chair of Trust at Melbourne Business School, and Dr Steve Lockey, Senior Research Fellow (KPMG in Canada). Megan Jones, KPMG in Canada's National HR and Workforce Transformation Lead, said in the same KPMG article that it is up to organizational leaders to engage the workforce through the change (KPMG in Canada).
Businesses report a similar picture. Among Canadian businesses that used AI in the 12 months before Statistics Canada's survey for the second quarter of 2026, almost one-third (32.0%) reported AI-related training for existing employees (Statistics Canada). The grant lowers the cost of closing that gap, on the conditions that follow.
Which employers and staff qualify
The employer must have a physical location in Ontario and have operated there for at least a year before applying (Ontario Job Grant guidelines). Trainees must be the employer's own employees, resident in Ontario, and Canadian citizens, permanent residents, refugee claimants or other protected persons. The owner cannot be a trainee, and neither can board members, shareholders, their immediate families, contractors, volunteers or temporary foreign workers. A trainee already funded by another government program for the same training is not eligible either (Ontario Job Grant guidelines).
Who can deliver the training
The provider must keep a physical presence in Ontario throughout the training, must have offered the training for at least two years, and must be one of six types (Ontario Job Grant guidelines):
- a publicly assisted college, university or Indigenous Institute in Ontario
- a district school board
- a career college or vocational program provider registered under, and in compliance with, the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005, or exempt from it
- a union-based training centre
- a sector council
- an industry association
The ministry can waive the Ontario rule in exceptional circumstances, with evidence that the training is not available from an Ontario provider (Ontario Job Grant guidelines).
Product vendors are a special case. A vendor cannot be funded to teach the basic use of its own product, though it may deliver advanced training (Ontario Job Grant guidelines). For grant funding on an AI tool, basic training has to come from a provider other than the company that sells the tool.
A private consulting firm is not one of the six types, and that includes DeployLabs. Online training can qualify if it meets the other rules, and a blended model is allowed (Employment Ontario).
What the grant pays for
| Eligible costs | Not eligible |
|---|---|
| Tuition or other training provider fees | Trainee wages, which are not on the eligible list |
| Mandatory student fees and examination fees | Training through business consulting services |
| Up to $500 per trainee for textbooks, software and materials the training requires | Curriculum development |
| Up to $500 per trainee for travel over 24 km one way | Executive training, including programs for senior leaders in leadership, strategic planning and change management |
| Training conducted at conferences or workshops | |
| Membership, subscription and annual fees |
All of these come from the ministry's guidelines, which also state that any cost not listed as eligible is ineligible (Ontario Job Grant guidelines). Software required for the course counts toward the materials limit of $500 per trainee, while subscription fees are listed as ineligible, so confirm with the ministry how it treats an AI tool licence before you count on it. Employers with fewer than 100 employees that train previously unemployed new hires can receive up to $15,000 per trainee, with no required contribution (Ontario Job Grant guidelines).
Not sure where AI fits in your operations?
Take the Free AI Readiness Scorecard →The order that keeps a claim eligible
- Get quotes from three different training providers. The ministry requires three, except in exceptional circumstances, and a written reason if you do not choose the lowest (Ontario Job Grant guidelines).
- Apply through the OJG Online Application Portal. Each application covers up to 25 trainees, and an employer may have one application in progress at a time (Ontario Job Grant guidelines).
- Wait for the decision before training starts. The ministry makes the funding decision, and when funding is limited, lower priority applications may not be approved. Only funding approved before the start of training is eligible (Employment Ontario).
- If the ministry approves the application, register in Transfer Payment Ontario and sign the transfer payment agreement before the first session. Costs incurred before the agreement's effective date are not reimbursed, even on an approved application (Ontario Job Grant guidelines).
Example: a smaller employer sending 10 trainees (illustrative). Suppose an eligible provider quotes $1,200 per trainee for an AI skills course. Below the guidelines' 100-employee threshold, the company pays at least one-sixth, $200 per trainee, and the grant can cover up to $1,000. For 10 trainees, that is $2,000 from the company and up to $10,000 from the grant, plus the wages for the hours staff spend in class.
Result (illustrative): the company's share would be $2,000 of the $12,000 in tuition, with wages on top. The course would teach AI skills for the trainees' jobs; fitting those skills to the company's own policy and tools would still need its own budget line.
Where the grant stops
In our reading of the guidelines, fitting a course to your company falls outside the grant. Curriculum development, training through business consulting services and executive training in strategic planning and change management are all listed as ineligible (Ontario Job Grant guidelines). Whether a policy review with leadership and department workshops on the company's own work count as consulting is the ministry's call, so ask before you plan around the grant.
Key Takeaway: Use the grant for a job-focused AI course from an eligible provider, and budget the policy work and company-specific training as a separate line.
A practical plan has two lines. The first is a grant-funded course in AI skills for each trainee's job. The second is the work on your own rules: an AI use policy your leadership, IT, HR and legal advisor have reviewed, and training on it for each department.
Our AI training program covers that second line and starts with a $4,000 readiness week, credited in full toward the program. For the full budget, including staff time and licences, see how much AI training costs in Canada. The free AI use policy checklist lists the fourteen areas a first policy should cover.