Canada Education Savings Grant


The Canada Education Savings Grant is part of a Government of Canada program, administered through Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, to assist with savings for Canadian children's higher education. Under the CESG program, the government will contribute an amount to a Registered Education Savings Plan according to a formula which is dependent on the amount contributed and the income level of the family making the contributions.

Program

The grant payment is at least 20% of the total annual contributions up to $2500 per child. For lower income families, the grant may be up to 40% on the first $500, and 20% on the balance over that amount. The maximum lifetime grant limit is $7200.
Upon high school graduation, the child beneficiary may use the grant money to support either full-time or part-time studies in an apprenticeship program, a CEGEP, at a trade school, at a college, or at a university.
Since the program's inception in 1998, 47.1% of Canadian children under the age of 18 have received the CESG as of 2013. The government has paid $8.02 billion since 1998 to support a total of 4.84 million beneficiaries.