What government grants are available for RESPs?

By choosing to invest in a registered education savings plan for your child, you can receive at least two grants from the federal and provincial governments:

CESG (Canada Education Savings Grant);
QESI (Quebec Education Savings Incentive).

And that’s not counting the additional grants for lower-income families:

Additional CESG;
Additional QESI;
CLB (Canada Learning Bond)².

Regardless of your situation, there is nothing you need to do when opening your RESP to take advantage of these grants. We’ll take care of applying for them on your behalf.

When you sign the contract, your representative will ask you to complete the required forms. All you need is your Social Insurance Number (SIN) and your beneficiary’s SIN.

If you are not the custodial parent or guardian of the child for whom you wish to open an RESP, you will need to have Schedule B of the CESG and CLB application form completed by this person.

In Quebec, your beneficiary is automatically eligible for the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) and the Quebec Education Savings Incentive (QESI). There is no family income limit to qualify for these two basic grants. This means that you can already receive a minimum of 30% in government grants in your RESP for your beneficiary’s post-secondary education!

In New Brunswick, your beneficiary is eligible for the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) only, since the QESI is a grant awarded at the provincial level, and therefore only for people living in Quebec.

As for the Additional CESG, Additional QESI and CLB, they may be available to you depending on your financial situation. Your representative will be able to provide you with the best advice and help you obtain the grants to which you are entitled under your registered education savings plan.

Please note that the government grants to which the beneficiary is entitled are calculated on the adjusted family net income of the child’s primary caregiver.

The person receiving the Canada Child Benefit, commonly known as the “family allowance”, is the primary caregiver for the child covered by the RESP. This means that the policyholder is not necessarily the primary caregiver.

To maximize the grants available to you in your registered education savings plan, we recommend that you invest $2,500 per year. Contributions in excess of $36,000 for life per beneficiary do not qualify for additional grants.

Note that while there is no annual contribution limit for an RESP, there is a lifetime contribution limit of $50,000 per beneficiary. If you reach this maximum, you will need to be careful because you will have to pay a 1% monthly tax on any excess contributions.

Find out more about how to make the most of your RESP grants by visiting our page on this topic!

Yes, it’s possible. If you haven’t contributed in certain years, or haven’t contributed enough to maximize your RESP grants, you can use your unused grant room from previous years to bring the annual maximum to $5,000, if applicable.