Business innovation and growth support, 2022

Released: 2025-03-04

In partnership with the Treasury Board Secretariat, Statistics Canada maintains the Business Innovation and Growth Support (BIGS) database which acquires administrative data on the support provided to businesses from federal departments and agencies through various program streams.

BIGS data are now available for the 2022 reference year.

In 2022, the federal government provided innovation and growth support valued at $5.9 billion to over 39,000 businesses through 172 federal programs.

Support to high-revenue businesses nearly triples

While the majority of BIGS in 2022 was provided to small- and medium-sized enterprises (96% of the total number of enterprises), defined as those with fewer than 500 employees, the amount of support that was provided to high-revenue businesses almost tripled from the previous year. Enterprises with a revenue of $500 million or greater received around $736 million in support in 2022, an increase of 182% compared with $261 million in 2021.

Manufacturing businesses receive the largest share of innovation and growth support

In 2022, enterprises in the manufacturing sector (23% of the total value of all BIGS) received the most support, followed by enterprises in the professional, scientific and technical services (16%) and educational services (14%) sectors.

Chart 1 
Business innovation and growth support by employment size, 2022

Chart 2 
Business innovation and growth by revenue size, 2022

Chart 3 
Business innovation and growth support by industry sector, 2022

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).