Canada's PNP entrepreneur streams compared: BC, Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba (2026)

Two years ago, an entrepreneur comparing Canadian immigration options could line up five or six programs and pick the one with the lowest investment floor. That map is gone. The federal Start-Up Visa is closed to new applicants, Saskatchewan permanently closed its entrepreneur pathways in March 2025, and Ontario's Entrepreneur Stream has been closed since November 2024, with its redesigned replacement expected — but not yet launched — later in 2026. As of August 2026, the provinces actually issuing entrepreneur invitations are British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba. So the first question is no longer "which program is cheapest" but "which program is actually open" — and the second, less obvious question is what each open program will hold you to after approval. This is the hub of our entrepreneur immigration business plan series: the comparison first, then a province-by-province summary, each linking to a full deep dive.

Which entrepreneur streams are actually open in 2026?

The status column is the one to read first. Every figure below is drawn from the provincial program pages current as of August 2026.

Province / stream	Status (as of August 2026)	Minimum investment	Minimum net worth	Plan review model	Deposit / performance model
BC PNP — Base	Open. July 28, 2026 draw: 10 invitations at minimum score 117	$200,000	$600,000	Scored business concept at registration; comprehensive plan after invitation; authorized accounting firm verifies net worth	Performance agreement; no deposit
BC PNP — Regional	Open. Regional invitations issued through 2026	$100,000	$300,000	Community referral before registration, then same concept-first model	Performance agreement; no deposit
OINP Entrepreneur (redesigned)	Not launched. Old stream closed Nov. 4, 2024; relaunch expected later in 2026	Not published	Not published	Proposal targets businesses already established or purchased and operating in Ontario; review process unpublished	Not published
AAIP Rural Entrepreneur	Open to EOIs	$100,000 own equity	$300,000	Community support letter → EOI → full business plan with KPMG/MNP evaluation report + QSP net-worth report	Business Performance Agreement; 12+ months of operation before nomination
SINP Entrepreneur	Permanently closed since Mar. 27, 2025; legacy files continue	Legacy: $300,000 Regina/Saskatoon, $200,000 elsewhere	Legacy: $500,000	Legacy Business Establishment Plan tied to EOI claims	Legacy Business Performance Agreement
MPNP Entrepreneur Pathway	Open under interim procedure; no EOI draws — every EOI reviewed within 4 weeks	$250,000 Winnipeg Metropolitan Region / $150,000 outside	$500,000	Business Concept at EOI, full plan after invitation; two Business Immigration Officers assess; KPMG/MNP verify net worth	BPA signed before work-permit letter; old $100,000 deposit eliminated

Three patterns worth noticing before the details. First, the open programs cluster at $100,000–$250,000 of required personal investment — but the lowest floors ($100,000 in Alberta and regional BC) come tied to smaller communities. Second, every open stream runs a work-permit-first model: you build the business as a temporary resident and are nominated for permanent residence only after performing. Third, no open stream takes a security deposit anymore (Manitoba's Farm Investor Pathway, with its $75,000 deposit, is the exception that proves the rule) — the provinces switched from holding your money to holding your plan.

British Columbia: the most active program

BC is the busiest lane left open, and the most transactional. The Entrepreneur Immigration stream runs an Expression of Interest model: you register with a short business concept, the BC PNP scores the registration on a 200-point grid, and only the highest-scoring registrants are invited to submit a full application and comprehensive business plan. The business concept alone is worth 80 of the 200 points — commercial viability, transferability of skills, and economic benefits — which makes the concept document, not the net worth statement, the real competitive instrument.

The Base category requires $600,000 net worth and a $200,000 eligible personal investment, province-wide. The Regional stream halves both — $300,000 and $100,000 — for businesses in participating communities under 75,000 people, but adds a mandatory exploratory visit and a community referral before you can register. Both require at least one new full-time-equivalent job for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, created within about 14 months of arrival, with the Base investment deployed within about 20 months. Draws are frequent and cutoffs are published: the July 28, 2026 Base draw invited 10 candidates at a minimum score of 117, following a June 30 round at 118, with Regional invitations issued the same day at 113.

Nomination comes only after you arrive on a work permit, make the investment, create the job, and satisfy a performance agreement. For the full scoring grid, the jobs point table, and how the concept maps to points, see our BC PNP entrepreneur business plan guide.

Ontario: closed now, relaunching late 2026

Ontario is the province generating the most search traffic and the most misinformation. The facts as of August 2026: the old Entrepreneur Stream closed on November 4, 2024 (legacy files kept processing — Ontario still issued 91 Entrepreneur nominations among its 21,500 total in 2024). In December 2025, Ontario formally proposed a redesigned Entrepreneur Stream targeting people who have established and are actively operating an Ontario business, or have purchased and are operating an existing one — a business-operation-first concept, covering both startups and acquisitions. Ontario implemented Phase 1 of its program redesign on June 25, 2026 and says the remaining streams, Entrepreneur included, are expected to launch later in 2026.

What has not been published matters just as much: no investment minimum, no net worth threshold, no job requirement, no scoring grid, no priority sectors. Any 2026 article quoting a "$200,000 minimum investment" or "$400,000 net worth" for the new stream is recycling the old program's historical benchmarks as if they were rules. They are useful preparation reference points — nothing more.

The stream's history suggests the redesign is worth waiting for: Ontario's own reporting shows 24 Entrepreneur applicants operating businesses invested more than $8 million and created 66 permanent full-time jobs. What a prospective applicant can do now is assemble the evidence any version of a business-first stream will demand — source-of-funds records, management history, Ontario market research, acquisition due diligence. Our OINP Entrepreneur Stream 2026 guide tracks what is confirmed, what is proposed, and what to prepare.

Alberta: the rural route that is open right now

Alberta's Rural Entrepreneur Stream is open to expressions of interest, with the lowest financial floor of any open program: $300,000 net worth and a $100,000 own-equity investment (cut from $200,000 in April 2023). The catch is geography and process. The business must be in a community of under 100,000 people outside the Calgary and Edmonton metropolitan areas, and before you can even submit an EOI, you must court a participating community: research it, hold an exploratory engagement (now permitted by video, not only in person), present a Business Proposal Summary, and obtain a Community Support Letter endorsing the proposal. That letter is a feasibility screen, not an approval — AAIP separately scores the EOI and assesses the full Business Application.

The other requirements: three years as an active business owner-manager or four as a senior manager within the past ten, CLB 4 language ability, at least 51% ownership of a new business plus one full-time job for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, or 100% ownership for a qualifying business succession. At the Business Application stage, Alberta requires third-party reports — KPMG or MNP evaluate the business plan, and a Qualified Service Provider verifies net worth and source of funds — before AAIP itself decides. Approval produces a Business Performance Agreement, a legal contract with the Province: operate for at least 12 months, report every six, and meet the commitments or the nomination can be refused.

Capacity is real but tight: Alberta's 2026 entrepreneur allocation is 60 nominations, with 30 issued and 228 applications in process as of July 30, 2026. Full walkthrough in our AAIP Rural Entrepreneur business plan guide.

Saskatchewan: permanently closed

Saskatchewan gives the clearest answer of the four provinces, and it is no. The province permanently closed all SINP Entrepreneur and Farm pathways effective March 27, 2025 — no new applications, EOIs, or invitations. Files submitted before closure continue processing under the legacy rules: $500,000 net worth, $300,000 minimum investment in Regina or Saskatoon ($200,000 elsewhere), a Business Establishment Plan tied to the EOI claims, and a Business Performance Agreement requiring at least 12 months of operation before nomination.

The closure matters to readers in two ways. If you hold a pre-March-2025 SINP file, the legacy rules still govern your path to nomination. If you are researching where to apply, treat any page inviting you to "submit an SINP Entrepreneur EOI" as materially outdated — a surprising number of ranking articles still do. Details, legacy requirements, and what closure means for in-process files are in our SINP Entrepreneur closure guide.

Manitoba: open, but not the way older articles describe

Manitoba's Business Investor Stream — Entrepreneur Pathway is active, but it no longer works the way most comparison articles say. Under the current interim procedure, you submit a Business Concept, Self-Assessment and Code of Conduct by paper/email — and EOI draws are not currently being conducted. Instead, Manitoba reviews every submitted EOI within four weeks and either issues a Letter of Advice to Apply or explains why not. There is no "latest Manitoba entrepreneur draw cutoff" to optimize for, because there are no draws.

The thresholds: $500,000 net worth, a personal investment of $250,000 in the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region or $150,000 outside it, three years of full-time business experience in the past five (as an owner with at least one-third ownership, or as a senior manager), CLB 5, and at least one job created or maintained for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. A business research visit is encouraged but not mandatory — another point older articles get wrong. The application is assessed by at least two Business Immigration Officers, with KPMG or MNP verifying net worth and source of funds.

The old $100,000 performance deposit is gone. Manitoba now has you sign a Business Performance Agreement before it issues the work-permit support letter; you then arrive, report within 30 days, file progress reports, and submit a final report within 20 months — nomination follows only if the BPA is fulfilled. (The Farm Investor Pathway is the exception: it retains a $75,000 Deposit Agreement, a $300,000 farm investment, and a mandatory five-business-day research visit.) Full breakdown in our MPNP Business Investor business plan guide.

How the business plan requirement differs by province

Here is the thread that ties the whole cluster together: in every open stream, the business plan is not a marketing document — it is a commitment document, and each province has built a mechanism to hold you to it.

• Alberta sends your plan to an approved third-party evaluator (KPMG or MNP) before AAIP assesses it, then converts the approved commitments into a Business Performance Agreement — a legal contract with the Province, enforced through six-month progress reports and possible site visits. Alberta's application instructions warn explicitly that discrepancies between your documents and your representations can result in refusal.
• Manitoba requires the full plan to substantiate the business described in your Business Concept — not a different project introduced after invitation — and nominates only after the BPA is fulfilled.
• British Columbia scores the short concept competitively at registration, then holds you to the declared investment, jobs, and location through a performance agreement during the work-permit period.
• Saskatchewan's legacy files show the same logic: the Business Establishment Plan had to match the EOI claims and fed directly into a binding BPA.

The practical consequence: inflating the plan to win selection is self-defeating. A padded job count or investment figure that earns points at the EOI stage becomes a condition you must prove before nomination. The provinces are underwriting execution risk, and for good reason — Statistics Canada found that about 80% of immigrant-owned businesses were still operating after two years, but only 56% after seven. A plan built on numbers you can actually hit is not conservatism; it is the strategy.

Bridge Note writes business plans, business concepts, and proposal summaries for Canada's entrepreneur immigration streams — documents built to survive a KPMG or MNP evaluation, a two-officer review, or a 200-point scoring grid, with commitments the entrepreneur can realistically perform. We are a business plan service, not an immigration firm: we cannot promise a nomination, and program strategy, eligibility advice, and representation belong with a licensed immigration representative. What we control is that the plan going in is consistent, evidenced, and honest about what it commits you to.

The bottom line

As of August 2026, the entrepreneur immigration question answers itself in one pass: Saskatchewan is permanently closed, the federal Start-Up Visa is closed, Ontario is closed until its redesigned stream launches later in 2026, and the open lanes are British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba. BC is the most active and most competitive — $200,000/$600,000 for the province-wide Base category, half that for regional communities, decided by a scored business concept. Alberta offers the lowest open floor — $100,000 equity and $300,000 net worth — for entrepreneurs willing to build in a rural community that endorses them. Manitoba reviews every EOI within four weeks, with no draws and no deposit, at $150,000–$250,000 investment and $500,000 net worth. And in all three, the same rule holds: the plan you submit becomes the agreement you perform. Pick the province whose numbers you can actually deliver, then write the plan as if you will be audited against it — because you will be.

Frequently asked questions

Which provinces have open entrepreneur PNP streams in 2026?

As of August 2026, three provinces are actively taking entrepreneur candidates: British Columbia (BC PNP Entrepreneur Immigration, Base and Regional, with invitation rounds through July 2026), Alberta (AAIP Rural Entrepreneur, open to EOIs, alongside its graduate and farm streams), and Manitoba (MPNP Entrepreneur Pathway, accepting submissions under an interim procedure with every EOI reviewed within four weeks). Saskatchewan permanently closed its Entrepreneur and Farm pathways on March 27, 2025. Ontario's old Entrepreneur Stream closed November 4, 2024; its redesigned replacement is expected later in 2026 but had not launched as of August 2026. The federal Start-Up Visa is also closed to new applicants.

Is the Ontario OINP Entrepreneur Stream open again in 2026?

No. The old stream closed on November 4, 2024. Ontario formally proposed a redesigned Entrepreneur Stream in December 2025 — aimed at people who have established, or purchased, and are actively operating an Ontario business — and implemented Phase 1 of its redesign on June 25, 2026, saying the remaining streams, including Entrepreneur, are expected later in 2026. No launch date, investment minimum, net worth threshold, or scoring grid has been published. Articles quoting precise figures for the new stream are quoting assumptions or old-stream history, not current rules.

Which entrepreneur stream has the lowest investment requirement?

Among streams open as of August 2026, Alberta's Rural Entrepreneur Stream and BC's Regional stream share the lowest floor at $100,000, though both carry geographic conditions — an Alberta community under 100,000 people outside the Calgary and Edmonton metropolitan areas, or a participating BC community under 75,000. Manitoba requires $150,000 outside the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region ($250,000 inside it), and BC's province-wide Base category requires $200,000. The minimum is an eligibility gate, not a selection score: BC scores larger investments higher, and every program assesses whether the plan is commercially credible at the amount proposed.

Do I have to pay a deposit for Manitoba's Entrepreneur Pathway?

No. The old $100,000 Entrepreneur deposit is not part of the current pathway. Manitoba now uses a work-permit-plus-Business-Performance-Agreement model: you sign the BPA before Manitoba issues its work-permit support letter, arrive, build the business, report on progress, and are nominated only after Manitoba is satisfied the BPA was fulfilled. But Manitoba has not eliminated deposits entirely — the Farm Investor Pathway still uses a Deposit Agreement, currently $75,000, separate from its $300,000 minimum farm investment.

What is a Business Performance Agreement in entrepreneur immigration?

A legal agreement between the entrepreneur and the province that converts the commitments in your approved application — investment amount, business activity, ownership, jobs — into conditions you must meet before nomination. Alberta's BPA is a legal agreement with the Province of Alberta, signed within 14 days, with progress reports every six months, possible site visits, and at least 12 months of active operation before nomination. Manitoba requires its BPA to be signed before the work-permit support letter is issued and nominates only once it is fulfilled. This is why inflating investment or job numbers to score higher is self-defeating: the promises become obligations.

Sources

1. BC PNP Invitations to Apply — Government of British Columbia, 2026. Entrepreneur Immigration draw dates, scores and invitation counts.
2. WelcomeBC: For Entrepreneurs and Businesses — Government of British Columbia. Base and Regional thresholds and process.
3. 2026 Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program Updates — Government of Ontario, 2026.
4. Ontario Modernizing Immigration Program to Fill In-Demand Jobs — Ontario Newsroom, June 26, 2026.
5. OINP redesign proposal — Ontario Regulatory Registry, December 2025.
6. 2025 Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program Updates — Government of Ontario. 2024 nomination results, including legacy Entrepreneur nominations.
7. AAIP Rural Entrepreneur Stream — Eligibility — Government of Alberta, 2026.
8. AAIP Rural Entrepreneur Stream — How to Apply — Government of Alberta, 2026.
9. AAIP Processing Information — Government of Alberta, updated July 30, 2026. Entrepreneur allocation and application counts.
10. SINP Entrepreneur Applicants — Government of Saskatchewan. Permanent closure and legacy requirements.
11. MPNP Entrepreneur Pathway — Eligibility — Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program, 2026.
12. MPNP Entrepreneur Pathway — How to Apply — Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program, 2026. Interim intake procedure and BPA process.
13. MPNP Farm Investor Pathway — Eligibility — Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program, 2026.
14. The exit and survival patterns of immigrant entrepreneurs — Statistics Canada, 2018. Two-year and seven-year survival rates of immigrant-owned businesses.