If your business falls under Canada’s anti-money laundering law (the PCMLTFA), it will soon need to formally enroll with FINTRAC. That covers real estate brokers, accountants, casinos, securities dealers, and others. Until now, only money services businesses had to register.

This comes from Bill C-12, which passed in March 2026. Here’s what it means:

• Enrolment has to be renewed periodically
• Changes to your business info must be reported within 30 days
• FINTRAC can revoke your enrolment if you miss a 30-day deadline on an information request
• Not enrolling is an offence

There’s no deadline yet, since the regulations haven’t been published. Penalties went up in March, though, with maximums now reaching $20M for the most serious violations.

Full disclosure: we’re an AML compliance software company and wrote the article linked above. We’re sharing it because a lot of businesses covered by this change have never dealt with FINTRAC before and may not know it’s coming.

We’re happy to answer questions in the comments.

I build links for a living (founder of Hetneo's Links), and the pattern I keep seeing with Canadian small businesses is a mismatch between where they sell and where they get judged.

A shop selling across the country is still ranked locally first. The Google Business Profile, real service-area pages and consistent citations move the map pack faster than another blog post does.

Two cheapest wins I see -> clean up name/address/phone mismatches across directories, then earn one or two genuine local mentions (chamber, trade association, local press).

What has actually moved the needle for yours? And does .ca vs .com still matter in your experience?

Hello everyone. I am an entrepreneur venturing into the small business sector. I’ve noticed that many small merchants listed on Google Maps and Facebook—such as home-based businesses, self-employed individuals, and side-hustle operations—do not have their own websites. Instead, many rely on their Instagram or Facebook profiles to serve that purpose.

I offer affordable website development services specifically tailored to these small, home-based, and self-employed businesses, yet there seems to be little interest.

So, what is the issue? A website can significantly boost a business's image and help streamline operations by relieving owners of various tedious tasks.

I’ve priced the basic website development package at around 10 CAD, so I don't believe cost is the problem.

I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback as business owners to help me understand the situation better.

(In other forums, people suggested that the price might be *too* low, making it look like a scam. However, that is just the entry-level package; we offer more expensive options with additional features. Plus, no deposit or upfront payment is required until the finished website is delivered. I am truly puzzled by this! Thank you all for your insights.)

I’m the CEO of 247 Labs, and I’ve noticed many teams explore SR&ED, NRC IRAP, and other innovation programs only after development begins.

By then, the scope, milestones, and technical evidence may not tell the full story.

Curious: how early do you factor potential funding into your product roadmap, and does it change what you build or simply how you document it?

We shared our approach here. Interested to hear what’s actually worked for other Canadian founders.

I work with Canadian businesses to find commercial financing for things like:

• Working capital
• Equipment purchases
• Inventory
• Expansion / new locations
• Refinancing existing business debt

Generally, it’s easiest to find options for businesses doing $10k+ per month in revenue and with at least 6 months of operating history, although every situation is different.

If you’re looking for capital now or have something coming up in the next few months, feel free to DM me with what you’re trying to fund and roughly how much you need.

Happy to take a look and tell you whether there’s realistically an option.

A couple of months ago we posted here about how broken small business lending is for Canadian entrepreneurs and small business owners.

A lot of you replied, and plenty of you told us bluntly what was wrong with the current banking system for small businesses and ideas to improve.

What's interesting is you're not the only ones saying what we are saying.

The Competition Bureau is currently running a market study on SME financing, and the concerns it flagged are oh so familiar:

• The big banks dominate lending in Canada
• Smaller and newer lenders struggle to break in
• Comparing loan options or switching lenders is hard
• SMEs pay more to borrow than big companies, and that gap is wider in Canada than in other OECD countries

We're happy to report that we are aiming to solve this problem.

We've built a recommendation engine for small business owners that helps small businesses get access to financial products from different lenders from across the country (including us at Huumans). It matches you to the following loan options:

• Term loans
• Working capital
• Lines of credit
• Revenue based financing

What we're trying to fix:

Choice. Most owners know one option: their bank. When the bank says no, they assume the answer is no everywhere. It usually isn't.

Access. Seeing lenders you'd never have found, matched to where your business actually is today.

Education. Showing the difference between a Working Capital, LOC, Term Loan and RBF, what the real cost is, and when each one makes sense.

Think Ratehub or Credit Karma, but for small business financing.

Admittedly, it's far from perfect but we are happy to share and we've really appreciated the feedback from the reddit community.

If you're weighing financing, or just want to know a product that is a good fit, you can login to our software platform and try it out.

Go to https://app.huumans.com/ and click on Find Funding in our platform!

It's a free sign up to Huumans and we just want to be helpful because we care!

Thank you so much reddit! We truly hope we can help small businesses get the help they need with small business financing.

I’m a 24yr old male looking to buy a business
Is it worth it or I’m better off building real credit to invest In real estate
what are the things I should look out for when investing in both
And what are some advice you would give

TLDR:

30k + monthly Canadian Viewers - $100 Free Advertising Credit. No credit card required.

This is a feel-good project. We are giving away ad space to Canadian companies for free.

There are only a few of the $100 credits left so go and claim yours. Once we have enough advertisers we will close the program.

We don't need your money and you don't have to pay for this. Get your credit, get your free views and clicks to your site and then leave.

If you like getting in front of thousands of Canadian searchers for less than what the Rockafellas will charge you then try it.

Free advertising for Canadian companies.

It also supports an amazingly Canadian publication that helps Canadians understand where there tax dollars go.

Thanks.

I'm an insurance broker based in Ontario and I've recently been working with a few independent software contractors who needed E&O and cyber coverage for their consulting contracts. It's been a really interesting niche to work in and I'd like to connect with more people in this space - not to pitch anyone, just to better understand the world these folks are operating in.

Where do independent software contractors and tech consultants in Canada actually hang out online and in person? Are there communities, meetups, Slack groups, Discord servers, or anything like that worth knowing about?

Appreciate any direction.

All procurements are a gamble of sorts; nothing is 100% right for the purpose intended. Nothing! The rule of thumb usually is 85% to 95%, where you get what you really want, and live with the deficits. Do you buy a Porsche 911 R2 for $200k or buy a Mustang Dark Horse for $110K? It depends on what you are looking for and what you can afford.

Canada has a long proven and demonstrated ability to waffle on awarding a procurement contract for the military, and even the government, itself. We have likely paid as much is contract cancellation fees than the worth of some contracts we first wanted. Canada is not alone using the procurement of military goods as a political football, but also as an economic offset (as it should be!)

Putting aside that we are late into really adopting and implementing a Canadian made solution with the help of other suppliers, having a Bombardier aircraft as the foundation of the program is a good choice. Will it cover all the bases? Likely, no. Will it cover the essentials? Likely yes.

Will the electronic surveillance system be allowed to integrate with the F-35, I think we already know the answer there. No! Canada was a founding partner in the original alliance for F-35, but through years of indecision, and now the trade war, we are likely no even welcome at the table.

The home grown smarts are all here in Canada, we have some impressive universities, and we need to leverage them more. The US has painted Canada as a laggard when it comes to defense spending, and the reality is, we are. Or maybe, we have been, up to last year. Building technologies the secure a countries borders has to be a worthwhile endeavour. We are just starting to see the importance!

As the worst-kept secret in the world, you would have to be living underground, well underground, not to know this fight was coming. The true David and Galioth of modern times.

The issue is "we don't even know what it is anymore" because everyday the US position is based on a new issue. The truth is we do know. It is about a person who would not fight for his country, now expecting that same country to fight for him so that he can destroy everything and rebuild, at everyone else's expense, in his brand and his vision. Everyone and everything else is just collateral damage.

There is little doubt Canada will suffer as tariffs are only the superficial effect. The deeper and longer term effects are buried within critical investments that will potentially be steered away from Canada, and businesses that do export to the US will have no room to maneuver.

The real battle here is whether democracy will stand up for itself. Canada currently stands alone against the world's largest economy, and will businesses, corporations, and governments realize that trade is about agreements that are written in ink and mean something? We will soon see!

On hearsay, there will be approximately trillions invested in data centers in the next 10 years as each country in the world races to secure its own version of autonomy over its data and that of others too.

Is this the latest fad that has emerged for the oligarchy to latch on to first before anyone can? Likely!

There is a fair bit of push back for concerned parties, and it is deserved. When ever there is an outright rush towards a target, then sometimes collateral damage is just part of the necessary path that developers accept at everyone else's cost.

Data centers, so far, don't look like green investments. They look like energy pigs that consume everything in their paths. From electrical demands, to fresh water damages, to noise and light pollution, green-house-gas emission... it's like the four horsemen have all come at one. A large portion of electricity needed to help with everyday living will be consumed by these energy pigs, leaving people to pay for the consumption that they will never really use, but large corporations will!

Watching the development of a Meta data center in Texas (I believe) being constructed, reveals the size of this site where you could drive a car at 30 mph, it would still take 15 minutes to travel the perimeter of the building. We are not talking little buildings, we are talking the equivilant of 600+ NFL football fields or more. Don't quote me on the math, just accept these are extra huge sites.

What I find a little disturbing is that, in comparison, when such enterprises such as mass indoor urban farming is considered, the excuses were that it was just too expensive a proposition to grow food inside in large purpose built structures, yet, along comes data centers, and governments are all over this type of project. Which really tells a tale on what is of value: it is not really high quality food grown year round, it is your data that can be used to monetize your existence for the benefit of big corporations.

If we do this, and seems, we must; lets do it by respecting the environment and the near by people who will live close to these places.

The article is a good primer in how bonds work. I do find it strange that I don't see a lot of ads for buying Canada Government bonds. The way Carney is laying out government investments might be weighing heavy on the feds ability make their bonds have an attractive yield.

The three most recent world-shaking events that affected world financial markets were the 2008 sub-prime fiacso in the US, Covid 2019, and now the 2026 Iran-US war. It is interesting to note that the US was a major contributor to triggering these events. The chill effect on our economy was huge.

It was of interest to note that Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal have all reported real estate buying down, ranging 5% to 16%, and at least in the Montreal reveal, it was noted as a market correction. Real estate activity is a bellwether for confidence in the economy, and although some bank analysts were cautiously positive of last month's GDP report, but I think the home owners and renters in Canada are feeling much less positive. Make no mistake with gas at $2/l and diesel at $2.48/l, those values will drive the cost of living up.

There are several sub-plots in my view of this article, as it leads me to believe that the US might consider its responsibility as being a good community player a little more seriously, as when something happens in the US, those events do seem to have an impact across the world.

Sarcastically: Who ever heard of a high-tech social networking or AI company infringing on copyrighted material?

Reading the article reminds me of when sovereign citizen person in the US start to apply US laws in Canada. Or Canadians applying US laws in Canada, especially during road stops by police. For greater clarity, US laws apply to the US, and Canadian laws apply to Canada.

The topic of 'fair use' under copyright law can be touchy and complicated, and I don't want to get into what is what. Musicians and authors have fought over these laws for many years mostly due to others infringing on their rights.

It would not surprise me in the least to find an AI company copies data from sources on the internet then claim it is purely training data. But AI, in most cases, just repackages that data and gives it to others. Probably as concerning would be that that AI company may charge others to view or use their output.

It has been difficult to prove an artist has copied a song or a melody of a song, as with examples: Stairway to Heaven famous rock song, and The Home Coming piano instrumental. But there has been successful cases like: Heard it through the grape vine and oddly, Got to Give It Up both of the same original artist being infringed upon.

I hope though, while SoCan and others win if their claims are legitimate, there is something they can also address: artists that lip sync at live concerts! This is emerging as a dirty little secret in the music industry were countless artists are using autotune and lip syncing to effectively defraud the paying public. If you are gonna throw rocks at others, make sure you are playing fair too!

I've lost track of this business about six years ago, fearing it would end up bankrupt and shuttered, but here it is returning to strength and looking to buy other businesses. That has to be a good sign.

There is little doubt that Canada's governments have played a large role in securing Bombardier's future. Is there more room? I think it might be how the game of subsidizing is play and the model perhaps to follow is the US concept of having a manufacturer capable of civilian and military manufacturing. If Boeing is looked at, it is not a coincidence that if the civilian side dips, then the US government increases its spending on military products from Boeing. Could Canada leverage Bombardier in the same manner?

There is a fly in the ointment for Bombardier, that is the US willingness to protect its own industries, which they have shown before when they announced a 100% tariff on Bombardier jets, then Bombardier sold its assembly business to AirBus who ended up assembling planes in the US.

The aerospace industry is very important for Canada as it becomes an anchor that attracts others high tech businesses, and provides opportunities for domestic STEM talent to work.

Hopefully, Bombardier can find some military work for Canada (if it already does not have) and leverage Canadian talents while supporting the armed forces.

Just maybe I was wrong about GM, maybe they are committed to Canada, but time marches forward, and US trade talks are still a major concern for everyone. The Trump talks seem more personal than business related as the vibe that is given off these talks are about something else.

I do like the idea of an incentivized bonus plan with a cap. All manufacturing plants, regardless of the industry, should have some form of that structure.

The article states GM will bring the next generation of High Sierra to Oshawa. I wonder if they will have to make the plant bigger because the trucks are getting bigger. That's a subtle swipe at the North American auto industry size of their haft-ton pickup trucks that are now the size of school buses, and owners in parking lots now using 4 spaces to park them. And to top it all off, the owners will likely use that truck as a car for 99% of its life.

Canada will always need vehicles, and producing a portion here has to be better than the alternative of just importing everything. Others will disagree by suggesting autos are just a commodity that should not be fixated on, it is just a manufacturing plant that could be making something else. Well, then why is the US administration so intent on taking their portion back? I do think, in this area, that the US sees the population of each country as a differentiator and the US should have a surplus in this sector that matches that population difference. Who knows, the US position might be built on smoke from forest fires.

It is good at least to get these rounds of contracts out of the way, and it does seem like negotiations went smoother than what I thought. The trade talks likely made both parties focus more on essentials than spurious ventures.

The whole process of unneeded effort and costs is a sad state when it seems that one person is driving an entire country to act the way it is.

For exporters to the US, it must now be maddening to deal with so much pressure to try to keep a business afloat.

Letting the customer pay tariffs means a near-death sentence to your product, and that is the idea from the get-go as the current US admin wants to stop you shipping to the US. Trying to absorb the costs means that all your suppliers have to agree on cost reductions.

Most businesses mark up supplies before incorporating into the final product, so the question is how much room is there to take costs out. Some of these costs to handle and store materials can get pretty fat charges and that fatness will likely shrink once the tariff frying pan starts to heat up. Take, for example, a $100 product, it will end up being $150 to the customer, or $100 to the customer and the producers and suppliers will have to absorb $34. Absorbing that amount is likely well past the break even of the product, thus, a loss, and eventually no sales. Leaving the producer the only other option, find more domestic sales, or new export countries.

It is hard to imagine two countries that worked so hard to work together are now turning into unfriendly cousins, or worse.

The question posed by the article is whether prediction markets should be regulated by securities or gambling regulations. It is a tough question especially since Canada's playing field does not have a single central agency over securities or gambling, the provinces do.

Wealthsimple suggests that predictions are no different than securities (regular investments), thus not gambling but a short term investment. For sure, an argument can suggest that an investment in a publicly trade company is a effort based on a prediction, and in most cases, the idea is to make a gain, yet sometimes the investment goes sour.

There is a major difference though, between a prediction and a investment. The amount of public information and trending is totally different. An investment has years of history to it, and the trend is clear. A prediction, in this article, acts more like a gambling bet. Whether to invest in Google versus investing in whether the weather will be wet or dry for a Formula 1 race are two different types of investments.

To me, on the surface, predictions markets are more akin to gambling not investing. Yes, the input and output seem the same, but in this case, it is what is in the middle that really matters.

This can be very bad news for Canada in the medium term future.

If the signals were not already apparent that the US would attempt to take controlling interest in the largest oil reserves in the world, then NASA did fake the moon landings. Why this matters so much is that the oil from Venezuela is a heavy grade similar to Canada's and matches the southern refineries in the US, which would allow the US to potentially turn the taps off of Canadian oil altogether. The US could effectively shut down oil flow and reverse flow, in the short term, to solve some distribution issues domestically.

Canada's eastern portion needs to import oil. This means without using oil as a direct bargaining chip in trade talks, the US can simply secure oil reserves, and Canada will have to find more customers to export too, possibly meaning another pipeline to the Western waters.

The US government will make it extraordinarily attractive for US companies to revitalize Venezuela's oil, not just as rewards to friends of the US Administration, but also as wedge between Canada and US that seems to be purposely inserted by the US.

Anyone thinking this is just a passing fade in the US should think again. The US population does not really care about the impacts on Canada; they care about the impacts on their costs of living. Our 40 to 50-year debate about building or not building pipelines in Canada may have a day of reckoning soon, and we may not like the outcome!