Cultural Development Agreements (EDC) - Financial Assistance Program

• Application resolution
• Signed funding conditions document
• Eco-responsible management guidelines, if available
• Supporting documents for the proposal

Who is eligible?

• Municipalities
• Regional county municipalities (MRCs)
• Municipalities exercising some MRC powers
• Baie-James regional administration and delegated bodies
• Intermunicipal cultural organizations

Who is not eligible

• City of Montreal
• City of Quebec
• Metropolitan communities of Montreal and Quebec
• Public transit companies
• Municipal agents or mandataries

Eligible expenses

• Professional fees, salaries, and service contracts linked to the project
• Training, writing, translation, design, printing, promotion, and communications
• Equipment rental or non-integrated equipment purchases needed for the project
• Travel in Quebec and non-recoverable taxes

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• Operating costs and current activities
• Projects already completed or already funded by Quebec for the same project
• Books, magazines, and traditional or digital publishing costs
• Alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, gifts, legal fees, and land or property purchases
• Recurrent projects, festivals, events, prizes, and international projects

Eligible geographic areas

• Quebec
• All administrative regions of Quebec, except Montreal and Quebec City for project location

• Program relevance and alignment with government and ministerial cultural priorities.
• Project coherence with the local territorial context and community needs.
• Available human resources, partnership strength, and financial governance.
• Quality, innovation, realism, and expected territorial and cultural impact of the action plan.
• Consideration of regional coverage, sustainable practices, and priority to new agreements or MRCs, where applicable.

• Step 1: Register in di@pason
  • Create or update your profile.
  • Enter the required organization information.
• Step 2: Submit the initial application
  • Complete the request form in di@pason.
  • Enter the proposed agreement duration, actions, and funding information.
  • Attach the required documents.
• Step 3: Ministry review
  • The Ministry checks admissibility and reviews the initial request.
  • If selected, the Ministry sends a funding proposal.
• Step 4: Complete the action plan
  • Prepare the detailed plan and budget in di@pason.
  • Submit the completed application to the Ministry.

• The Ministry reviews the application for admissibility after submission.
• Eligible applications are assessed against the program criteria.
• The Ministry may request corrections or additional information.
• If selected, the Ministry sends a funding proposal and the agreement is signed.
• Reporting is required annually, and for Volet 2 a partnership agreement sets out follow-up terms.

• Applications for this program closed on January 24, 2025.
• The program is delivered through the Ministry’s regional offices and di@pason.
• A cultural policy may be required for some projects; for a Volet 1 agreement, a municipality without one may only apply for policy development.
• Projects funded under the agreement must follow government visibility rules.