Grant stacking

Overview

There are 2 types of grant programs available to municipalities:

• project-specific grants: one-time funding based on a particular project
• allocation-based grants: annual grants based on criteria such as population, road length and other municipal information

Municipalities may want to use more than one type of provincial grant program to fund a single project. This is known as grant stacking, and is subject to specific conditions.

Conditions

Some project specific grant programs require their funding to be approved prior to applying for allocation-based funding. It is the responsibility of the municipality to understand the requirements of the grant, including additional approvals, reporting, applications, as well as cost-sharing requirements or limits.

For example, if a municipality wants to build a water treatment plant with funding from the Alberta Municipal Water/Wastewater Partnership (AMWWP) and wants to use their Municipal Sustainability Initiative capital grant to fund other project costs that may not be eligible under AMWWP, it must first obtain approval for the AMWWP funding.

Once the AMWWP grant is approved, the municipality can apply for Municipal Sustainability Initiative grant funding. A copy of the award letter from the Minister of Transportation approving the project-specific funding is required by Municipal Affairs as a condition to approving the Municipal Sustainability Initiative capital grant.

Opportunities

The Grant Stacking Opportunities (PDF, 396 KB) document provides a high-level summary of stacking opportunities available to municipalities. Please contact program staff at 780-422-7215 for specific details on program requirements.