Can I use Canada Small Business Financing Program funds to buy an existing business?

Possibly, but this depends on how the specific acquisition is structured and what the program's current rules actually cover. The Canada Small Business Financing Program is a federal program that helps eligible small businesses obtain financing from participating financial institutions by having the government share part of the lender's risk on certain categories of financing, generally aimed at things like real property, equipment, and leasehold improvements used in the business, rather than at financing a share purchase or business goodwill more generally.

Whether a particular business acquisition qualifies often turns on the deal's structure, for example whether it is an asset purchase of eligible categories of property versus a share purchase of the corporation itself, and on the program's current eligibility rules, which are set and updated by the federal government rather than fixed permanently. This is not something to assume applies to a given deal without checking directly with a participating financial institution against the program's current terms, since the details matter more than the general concept.