November 12, 2025.
Ontario’s flagship support program for early-stage digital media creators claims to break down barriers and nurture innovation, but a closer look at the numbers and requirements paints a very different picture.
The Numbers Game
Applicants are enticed with the promise of up to $20,000, 75% of your total budget, if you can secure the maximum allowable grant. That sounds generous, but simple math reveals the gap. To unlock the full $20,000 grant, your total budget must be at least meaning you must provide or find another $6,666.67 yourself.
But the catch gets sharper: up to 25% of the project budget is strongly encouraged to be allocated to hiring a “mentor”: a consultant or industry professional, often with preexisting ties to the institutions running these programs. For our sample budget, that’s $6,666.67 channelled away from your team’s direct work and handed to outside advisors.
Budget Line | Amount | Percentage |
Grant from Ontario | $20,000.00 | 75% |
Required Shortfall | $6,666.67 | 25% |
Mentor Allocation | $6,666.67 | 25% (of budget) |
Actual Project Money | $20,000 minus mentor allocation = $13,333.33 | 50% |
With mentorship as an expense, the practical funding available to do the actual creative work is 50% of the total budget: the rest lines pockets at the margins.
Who Really Benefits?
The structure funnels taxpayer money into pockets of mentors, government-administered workshops, and administrative overhead. Pre-approved organizations run mandatory training (often with limited notice and accessibility), and government staff administer and attend webinars that mostly confirm this self-reinforcing ecosystem.
Meanwhile, applicants, particularly independent artists and marginalized creators, must scramble for the remaining funding, unpaid time, and precious project resources. The advertisements focus on inclusion, but the mechanics ensure insiders win and outsiders struggle.
Transparency and Impact
Real support means real money for creators and clear, open pathways to opportunity. Instead, this system creates:
- Mandatory spending with institutional gatekeepers.
- Administrative complexity and requirements that filter out the most precarious applicants.
- Notifications issued after workshops close, ensuring the pool stays small and predictable.
- The illusion of support while the core creative work is chronically underfunded.
Final Thoughts
Ontario Creates Futures Forward touts project development and mentorship, but in practice, most creators are left funding mentors and bureaucrats while the real work goes unfunded. This is a classic shell game, a system designed to look inclusive, but which in fact shifts public funding into preapproved channels, leaving actual creators with the smallest slice.
If you believe public programs should put creators first, demand a fairer structure: one where mentorship is available by choice, funded outside the core budget, and direct support flows where the talent is, not where the paperwork and politics point.