Pay only after reviewing the current official framework, resolving any admissibility or visa-availability issue, and settling the facts requested in the application. A U.S. facility may support an ordinary EB-1C alternative, but it is not an extra prerequisite for the Gold Card framework.
Let the business plan set the order, not the program's deadline
Hypothetical example: the owner is also planning a U.S. cross-dock facility to serve her shippers. Opening it under the Canadian company may create an ordinary EB-1C alternative after the U.S.
entity has done business for at least one year, but the Gold Card framework treats the gift itself as evidence for its specified EB-1 or EB-2 basis. The sensible sequence is to compare the ordinary route with the Gold Card, obtain tax advice, resolve admissibility and visa-availability questions, and then re-read the official page on the day the processing fee will be paid. If she needs to be in the United States sooner to run the facility, a qualifying nonimmigrant status through the company may be a bridge.
The facility decision should be based on the business, not on an invented Gold Card career prerequisite, and no money should move on stale program terms.