Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ)

Where Canada Summer Jobs stands right now

Canada Summer Jobs, or CSJ, runs on a single annual intake. There is no rolling window and no second chance inside a cycle. The CSJ 2026 employer application period ran from 4 November 2025 to 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time on 11 December 2025, and Employment and Social Development Canada now labels that period "Closed" on the official applicant guide. If you are reading this hoping to submit an application today, you cannot.

Employment and Social Development Canada has not published an application period for CSJ 2027. The two most recent cycles both opened in November and closed in December: CSJ 2026 ran from 4 November to 11 December 2025, and CSJ 2025 ran from 19 November to 19 December 2024. Plan on an autumn 2026 window and confirm the published date before you build a hiring plan on it.

The program itself is growing, not winding down. On 20 April 2026 the department announced up to 100,000 CSJ openings for summer 2026, described as part of a $1.5 billion investment in youth employment programming expected to support about 175,000 opportunities for youth in 2026 to 2027. CSJ has supported more than 600,000 youth job opportunities since 2019.

• Current employer intake: closed since 11 December 2025.
• CSJ 2027 intake: not yet announced by Employment and Social Development Canada.
• Worth doing now: register your organization on the Grants and Contributions Online Services (GCOS) portal. Accessing all GCOS features requires completing registration by verifying your identity, and the department strongly recommends setting the account up before the application deadline to avoid delays or missed opportunities.
• Also worth doing now: confirm you hold a CRA payroll deductions (RP) program account, and draft the supervision and mentoring plans, which together carry 28 of the 100 quality points.

What the subsidy actually pays a for-profit employer

CSJ does not reimburse a share of what you pay the youth. It reimburses a share of the adult minimum hourly wage in the province or territory where the work happens. The department states plainly that CSJ only reimburses up to the adult minimum hourly wage set by the province or territory at the time of the job. That distinction matters the moment you pay above minimum wage, and it is the single most common misunderstanding we correct on discovery calls.

Private sector and public sector employers are eligible for up to 50 per cent of the provincial or territorial adult minimum hourly wage. Not-for-profits are eligible for up to 100 per cent of that wage plus the associated Mandatory Employment Related Costs, or MERCs. For private and public sector employers the department states that MERCs are not eligible for reimbursement, so employment insurance premiums, Canada or Quebec Pension Plan contributions, vacation pay and workers' compensation premiums stay on your books in full.

The department's own worked example: a private employer paying a youth $17.00 per hour in a province where minimum wage is $16.00 per hour is reimbursed 50 per cent of $16.00, which is $8.00 per hour. The extra dollar you chose to pay is yours to carry.

In Alberta, where the guide lists the adult minimum wage as $15.00 per hour, that puts a private sector employer at up to $7.50 per hour of reimbursement. Employment and Social Development Canada states it aims to fund positions that last about 8 weeks and offer 35 hours per week. Running those published parameters gives $2,100 per position. That is the figure Impact Applications secured for a client, and it is a realistic expectation for a single Alberta position rather than a best case.

If you pay a lower legal wage, the subsidy falls with it. The guide is explicit that where a province allows an exception to the minimum wage and you request to pay that lower wage, CSJ funding will be based on the lower amount. The department's own Alberta example: the adult minimum wage is $15.00, but students under 18 can be paid $13.00, and a private employer paying the student wage is reimbursed 50 per cent of $13.00, which is $6.50 per hour.

• Private sector: up to 50% of the provincial or territorial adult minimum hourly wage. No MERCs, no workers' compensation reimbursement.
• Not-for-profit: up to 100% of that wage plus MERCs, including workers' compensation or equivalent liability insurance premiums.
• Calculated range per position at the $15.00 Alberta rate listed in the guide, derived from the published 50% rate and the published duration limits: about $1,350 for the minimum 6 weeks at 30 hours, about $2,100 at the 8 week and 35 hour target, and about $4,800 for the maximum 16 weeks at 40 hours.
• If a minimum wage increase lands mid-summer, CSJ adjusts the reimbursement based on the wage in effect for the hours worked.
• Under the Articles of Agreement, if the hourly wage you actually pay is less than the rate shown in your application, Canada may reduce its contribution accordingly.
• Additional funding may be available for accommodation measures supporting youth with disabilities, reviewed case by case. You must contact the department before the project starts.

Are you an eligible employer

For a for-profit business, the gate that decides everything is headcount. Private sector organizations must have 50 or fewer full-time employees across Canada at the time of application, where full-time means 30 hours or more per week. There is no equivalent cap on not-for-profits or public sector bodies, which is why CSJ is often described as a charity program even though small businesses are squarely eligible.

Franchise owners are treated as private sector employers and qualify only if they employ 50 or fewer full-time employees across Canada, regardless of how many business numbers they hold. The department instructs franchise owners to total full-time employees across all their locations. That closes the obvious workaround.

Two administrative requirements quietly disqualify applicants every year. Your organization must be registered with the Canada Revenue Agency with a valid business number, and it must have a CRA payroll deductions (RP) program account before you hire the youth. The department also requires that your organization be solely responsible for managing the funded jobs, and therefore that it have its own business number.

• Eligible not-for-profits: community, charitable and voluntary organizations including faith-based organizations, unions, associations of workers or employers, professional and industrial organizations, sector councils, non-governmental organizations, Indigenous not-for-profits and not-for-profit Band Councils.
• Eligible public sector: municipal governments and agencies, territorial governments, school boards and elementary and secondary institutions, public community colleges and vocational schools, public degree-granting universities and colleges, public hospitals, nursing homes, senior citizen homes, rehabilitation homes and public libraries.
• Eligible private sector, all subject to the 50 full-time employee limit: incorporated and unincorporated bodies including partnerships and sole proprietorships, financial institutions, private health and educational institutions, private universities or colleges, Indian Band corporations, private Band Councils, and independent owners of franchises.
• Ineligible employers: members of the House of Commons and the Senate or members of their immediate family, federal government departments and agencies, provincial departments and agencies, organizations that engage in partisan political activities, and organizations whose activities directly or indirectly infringe, undermine, weaken or restrict the exercise of human rights legally protected in Canada.
• Ineligible activities: anything taking place outside Canada including a youth teleworking outside Canada, activities contributing to the provision of a personal service to the employer, partisan political activity, and fundraising activities to cover salary costs for the youth participant.

Which youth you can hire, and the job you have to offer

Participants must be between 15 and 30 years of age at the beginning of the employment period, hold a valid Social Insurance Number at the start of employment, be legally entitled to work in Canada in accordance with relevant provincial or territorial legislation, and be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person to whom refugee protection has been conferred under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for the duration of the employment. The department confirms a youth may be 31 by the end of the job as long as they were 30 when it began.

There is no student requirement. Employment and Social Development Canada states the program is open to all youth ages 15 to 30 regardless of level of education or student status, and that the preferred level of education you list is not assessed.

International students are not eligible, and neither are youth awaiting a refugee status ruling or holding a temporary visitor visa, youth visa or work visa. If your participant's Social Insurance Number begins with 9, you must supply proof of residency, either a letter from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada confirming refugee status or a valid Permanent Resident Card. Without valid proof the participant is ineligible for the program.

• Hours: full-time, 30 to 40 hours per week. If a youth works less than 30 hours in any week the department may deem those wages ineligible for reimbursement unless it has granted consent for exceptional circumstances, for example to accommodate a youth with a disability or where provincial law prohibits youth from working full-time hours.
• Duration: 6 to 16 consecutive weeks. In CSJ 2026 the earliest job start was 20 April 2026, the latest start 20 July 2026, and the latest end 29 August 2026.
• Location: the work must take place in Canada, and employers must ensure youth work from locations within Canada regardless of the work arrangement used.
• The youth cannot displace or replace existing employees or volunteers, even ones temporarily absent, for example on vacation. See section 13.1(a) of the Articles of Agreement.
• A youth already working full-time for you is ineligible. Existing part-time staff and youth previously hired through a CO-OP placement may be eligible.
• Youth hired due to nepotism are ineligible for reimbursement. The department may approve a family member's participation if it is confirmed that the hiring was not due to favouritism. See subsection 20.1 of the Articles of Agreement.
• Each youth may work only one CSJ-funded job per project at a time, and employers are to hire a different youth for each job approved in their agreement.

How the department scores your application

Applications pass through two gates. First a screen against 15 mandatory eligibility requirements: if the project does not meet all 15, it does not proceed for assessment at all. Then a quality assessment scored out of 100 against the three program objectives.

Here is the part most applicants miss. Scores are ranked within your federal constituency, not nationally. The department scores and ranks eligible applications within each constituency, creates a list of recommended projects, gives each member of Parliament the list of eligible projects for their constituency for feedback based on local needs and priorities, and allocates funds using both the assessment result and that feedback. You are competing with the employers down the road, not with the whole country, which makes the constituency mechanics unusually consequential.

Your constituency is determined by the postal code of the location of the proposed activities, which the department looks up on the Elections Canada website. If all your jobs sit in one constituency, submit one application listing all of the locations. If you have locations in different constituencies, submit a separate application for each. The majority of the participant's work must be within the constituency for which the application is submitted.

• Objective 1, quality work experiences, 30 points: the job provides a salary above the provincial or territorial minimum wage (10), you intend to retain the youth as an employee after the agreement ends (5), and the supervision plan (15).
• Objective 2, skills development, 40 points: the mentoring plan (13) and transferable skills developed through the work experience (27). This is the largest single block of points on the form.
• Objective 3, national and local priorities, 30 points: youth facing barriers to employment (10), national priorities (10) and local priorities (10).
• Supervision is scored on specifics: type of supervision (on-site, remote or a combination), frequency, the supervisor's experience in a supervisory role, whether feedback is formal or informal, and what the supervisor will provide.
• Mentoring is scored the same way: type (one-on-one or team), frequency, the mentor's experience in a mentoring role, whether the relationship is formal or informal, and what the mentor will provide.
• CSJ 2026 national priorities were construction, including work advancing affordable housing and community development and the administrative and research roles that support it; green jobs and environmental protection; and exposure to technology and digital skills, including opportunities to develop foundational artificial intelligence skills through entry-level tasks such as data labelling and preparation. Meeting more than one earns additional points.
• Local priorities are established by members of Parliament for each constituency. It is not mandatory for an MP to establish them, and the department will not penalize you during assessment if yours has not.

Why applications fail

CSJ is oversubscribed every year. In 2025 the program received more than 42,800 applications from employers, funded more than 27,450 employers and created more than 75,000 jobs. Employment and Social Development Canada states directly that funding is limited, that it receives more applications than it can fund each year, and that even an eligible project may not be selected, may receive less funding than requested, may receive less funding than in previous years, or may be approved for fewer weeks than requested. All decisions are final, there is no appeal process, and the department does not share individual assessment scores.

• Missing the deadline. The department will not consider applications received or postmarked after the deadline date.
• Incomplete applications or errors. The department may refuse applications that are incomplete or contain errors, and it assesses a project only once all 15 eligibility requirements are met.
• Blowing the clarification window. If the department emails you for missing or unclear information you have 5 business days to respond. Miss it and the application does not proceed to assessment.
• Thin supervision and mentoring plans. Together they are worth 28 of 100 points and they are scored on named specifics, not on assurances that the youth will be well supported.
• A job description that does not evidence transferable skills. That criterion alone is worth 27 points, and the department says the job description section, including the outlined tasks and responsibilities, may be considered when assessing skill development.
• Constituency errors. Applying under the wrong riding, or splitting one riding across several applications instead of submitting one application listing all of the locations. Submitting multiple copies of the same application, or using several submission methods, can lengthen processing.
• File history. The department reviews files associated with your organization for documented evidence from previous agreements that would render your application ineligible, may review previous applications and correspondence, and may consult the Canada Revenue Agency on past financial irregularities. It may also review information in the public domain, including materials on your website and media articles.
• Paying only minimum wage. The 10 points for a wage above minimum are the cheapest points available and cost you very little on a position of a few hundred hours.

Getting paid, and the reporting attached to it

CSJ is a reimbursement contribution, not a cheque up front, unless you request an advance. You pay the youth on your normal payroll cycle, and the department reimburses eligible costs after verifying them. You cannot be reimbursed for any activities that happen before your project is officially approved and a signed agreement is in place, and submitting an application does not mean your project is approved.

• Funding decisions for CSJ 2026 started in April 2026 and continued through the summer. Approved employers receive a document called "Calculation of Approved Canada Summer Jobs Contribution Amount", signed by an authorized representative of Canada.
• Advance option, available to all organizations: up to 75% of the total value of the agreement for projects $100,000 and under, up to 50% for projects $100,001 or more. An advance is issued only after the department receives your Employer and Employee Declaration form.
• Employer and Employee Declaration form: due within 7 calendar days of each participant's first day of work, so the department can validate their eligibility.
• Payment Claim and Activity Report: due within 30 calendar days after the completion of the last CSJ-funded job. You must complete the mandatory Employer Questionnaire first, because the confirmation number it generates is required on the claim.
• Direct deposit pays within 3 to 5 business days from when the department processes the form. A new direct deposit form is required every year, even if you submitted one for a previous CSJ project.
• The amount of your final payment may differ from what you claimed, based on the eligibility of the expenses.
• Some approved employers may be randomly selected for inspections or audits, as outlined in subsection 21.2 of the Articles of Agreement, and may be asked for payroll records, pay stubs and CRA remittance forms. The department may also interview participants and, if it finds financial issues, verify information with the Canada Revenue Agency.
• Youth must be covered by workers' compensation or equivalent liability insurance at the start of employment, per section 29 of the Articles of Agreement. Only not-for-profit employers can be reimbursed for that cost, and it is your responsibility to verify with your insurer that the coverage applies to the youth's actual activities and locations.

How CSJ interacts with SR&ED and other funding

Treat CSJ money as government assistance for tax purposes, because that is what it is. The Canada Revenue Agency defines government assistance in the Income Tax Act as assistance from a government, municipality or other public authority whether as a grant, subsidy, forgivable loan, deduction from tax, investment allowance or any other form of assistance other than the federal investment tax credit.

Under the CRA's Assistance and Contract Payments Policy, government assistance reduces both the pool of deductible SR&ED expenditures under paragraph 37(1)(d) of the Income Tax Act and qualified SR&ED expenditures for investment tax credit purposes under subsection 127(18). The reduction applies on a project-by-project basis, only to the extent the assistance can reasonably be considered to be in respect of the SR&ED, and it can reduce a project's expenditures only to nil, never below.

In practical terms: if your CSJ hire spends time on eligible experimental development, the portion of the subsidy attributable to those hours comes off the claim base for that project. What comes off is the subsidy amount, not the youth's whole salary, and assistance tied to one project cannot reduce the expenditures of another. Track the participant's hours by project from the first day, because the alternative is an allocation you cannot defend in a review.

One nuance if you use the proxy method. Assistance relating to the prescribed proxy amount does not reduce the pool of deductible SR&ED expenditures, because the proxy amount is not an expenditure in that pool, but it does reduce qualified SR&ED expenditures. Hand the allocation to whoever prepares your SR&ED claim rather than guessing at it, and note that CRA SR&ED policy documents are being reviewed following legislative changes that received royal assent in March 2026.

Stacking other wage funding on the same position is constrained rather than forbidden. Question 21 of the CSJ application asks whether you have applied, or will apply, for other sources of funding to pay for part of the wages for the jobs you are requesting, and the department uses that answer to verify that contributions to the project do not exceed 100 per cent of the salary for the job requested. Section 8.3 of the Articles of Agreement lets Canada, at its discretion, reduce its contribution by up to the amount of any additional assistance received, or require repayment if its contribution has already been paid.