Recruitment, Retention and Innovative Skills

• Organization registration details
• Project summary and objectives
• Proposed project dates
• Project budget and funding request
• Supporting documents, such as letters of support, CVs, or quotes

Who is eligible?

• Agriculture, food, or seafood industry organizations
• Indigenous groups, organizations, and communities in the sector
• Local governments engaged in the sector
• Partnerships of producers, processors, nonprofits, industry associations, employer organizations, or Indigenous groups

Who is not eligible

• Individual producers or processors applying alone
• Academic institutions as lead applicants
• Non-agricultural or non-food individuals or groups

Eligible expenses

• Costs for recruitment, retention, and skilled workforce development activities
• Tools, resources, communications strategies, and technologies for workforce support
• Delivery of training programs and employer or management training activities
• Initiatives that reduce barriers to workforce participation or support retention

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• Research projects or labour market studies
• Activities related to temporary foreign workers
• In-kind costs, GST, and other reimbursed taxes or credits
• Retroactive costs incurred before approval
• Capital, equipment, operational costs, employee housing, relocation, or wages

Eligible geographic areas

• British Columbia

• Program alignment
• Project eligibility and budget eligibility
• Project plan and realism of objectives
• Strength of partnerships and applicant capacity
• Sustainability and scope of benefits

• Step 1: Register your organization
  • Create or update your account in the IAF Client Portal.
  • Complete organization registration details.
• Step 2: Submit an Expression of Interest
  • Select the RRIST program in the portal.
  • Provide project summary, dates, objectives, benefits, costs, and budget.
  • Submit the EOI before the deadline.
• Step 3: Submit the full application if invited
  • Complete the full application in the portal after EOI approval.
  • Provide the detailed project description, workplan, partnerships, and funding request.
  • Submit the application in the portal within the required timeframe.

• EOIs are reviewed for eligibility, completeness, and alignment with program criteria
• Only EOIs that meet the threshold are invited to submit a full application
• Full applications are screened again and assessed against the evaluation criteria
• If approved, the applicant receives the decision and signs a contribution agreement before work begins
• Funding is then reimbursed through reports submitted in the IAF Client Portal

• EOI decisions are expected within 8 weeks of submission.
• Successful EOI applicants have 10 business days to complete the full application.
• Funding acknowledgements for public communications must be pre-approved through the IAF Client Portal.
• Project payments are made by EFT to the lead organization.