Council expands borders for grant policy, approves community grants

Cold Lake City council voted to extend the reach of its Community Event Incentive Grants to include events located in Ward 5 and Ward 6 of the Municipal District of Bonnyville.  

The Community Event Incentive Grant is one of nine grant streams established by the City of Cold Lake’s Community Recreation, Art, Culture and Heritage Investment Grant Policy. It provides a grant of up to $10,000 for events that are expected to bring benefit to local residents and bring non-local participants to the community.  

Other grant streams included in the Community Recreation, Art, Culture and Heritage Investment Grant Policy, but available only to Cold Lake groups, events and residents are: the Development Incentive Grant Policy; the Major Community/Tourism Event Grant, Equipment Grant; Leadership Grant; the Arts, Culture and Heritage Grant; the Screen Based Production Grant and grants approved under “Other Funding or Goodwill.” 

“Our council is recognizing that regional events bring economic activity to our community and that we should have a tool in place to assist those events where appropriate,” Mayor Craig Copeland said.

“The grant in question has a strong focus on economic benefit and all grant applications are vetted by a committee before given a final approval by council, so we are confident that any applications brought forward under this grant stream will have a regional benefit that our community can support.”  

Council also voted to adjust some of the grant intake deadlines, so that they are better aligned with the times that the Community Grant Advisory Committee meets. The four annual deadlines are by 4:30pm MST on the first Thursday of January, April, August and October.  

Through the City of Cold Lake’s Community Recreation, Art, Culture and Heritage Investment Grant Program, a total of $52,000 has been provided to community organizations through the fall intake, with just over $161,000 in grants dispersed to community groups in 2022.  

“Council is happy to help these groups in their efforts to bring exciting programs and events  to Cold Lake,” Copeland said. “Our community groups make Cold Lake a vibrant place to live and the events and programming they establish not only provide recreational, artistic and  cultural outlets for our residents, but attract visitors from our greater region and beyond.”