Sign Up for the Grant Gazette
5 Grant Gotchas - Header CTA - Hello Bar
Along the top of the site, you will see a "call to action." It's an orange bar.
Menu
Sign Up for the Grant Gazette
Along the top of the site, you will see a "call to action." It's an orange bar.
Many Albertans are very nervous about their future. The news headlines over the last few years have been absolutely horrendous – and getting worse.
TECK’s multi-billion dollar oilsands project is toast. “Protestors,” citing pipelines, easily slowed our economy for weeks. Nearly all traditional employment sectors in Alberta are facing cuts. Males under 25 have a 20% unemployment rate – a nasty double since early 2019.
The provincial budget will be tabled on 27th of February, and the dire reality of our situation will be felt by many more, especially municipalities and post-secondary institutions.
Is there any hope?
Yes. Enormous opportunity exists for those who refuse to participate in this economic mess. And in this article, I show you a way that few understand.
There is grant money waiting for YOU! BUT if you step in a “grant trap,” your application is a NO! Learn the FIVE most common errors to AVOID in government grants! Get the 5 Grant Gotchas now to save you countless hours.
When Jason Kenney won a majority government in 2018, one of his first acts was to create a Blue Ribbon Panel on Alberta’s Finance. Known as the MacKinnon Report on Alberta’s Finances, the independent panel of experts reviewed Alberta’s finances and provided recommendations to bring the budget back to balance.
Some of the key recommendations pertained to advanced education and municipalities. Here is an excerpt from the recommendations. Notice recommendation 5 & 8. Change is coming.
Source: MacKinnon Report on Alberta’s Finances
If you’re in the education space, you need a money plan. Fast.
What about municipalities. Notice the second bullet below?
Source: MacKinnon Report on Alberta’s Finances
That report was completed in August 2019 and a few months later the Kenney government published its first budget. This news headline says a lot about how the media perceived the budget’s impact on jobs.
Source: Globe and Mail October 2019
The bad news kept continuing. In January, Edmonton unemployment was leading the nation.
Source: Edmonton Journal, January 2020
Approximately one in five males in Alberta under 25 is currently unemployed.
Source: CBC December 2019.
The situation in Calgary barely needs explaining, but the Mayor of Calgary is quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying the Calgary downtown Office Vacancy Rate is over 30%.
If there was any sense of immediate hope in Alberta, it was TECK Resources multi-billion oilsands project in Fort Mack.
However, the project needed to be approved by the federal government. After the last federal election, Albertans fired all of their Alberta Liberal Members of Parliament. Therefore, the majority of Alberta’s fate was in the hands of those living in Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada.
You can image the revolt taking place in the federal Liberal caucus leading up to the decision: environment vs. economy. Regardless of the debate, TECK pulled its application out before the federal government approved or declined the project. More economic bad news hit Alberta.
Albertans are rightly asking Canadians: “like it or not, the world needs oil in the near future, so where the heck do Canadians want to get it from: Canada or abroad?
It seemed for a moment that Albertans were ready to fight back. Even the Federal Conservative Leader candidate Peter MacKay chimed in with this tweet:
But the forces of political correctness are powerful, and the media quickly pounced on MacKay:
MacKay deleted his tweet, leaving some Albertans looking to the sky and shaking their heads.
Albertans are rightly feeling lost. For decades many have left their families out East for a better life. They have driven the dangerous Highway 63 to Fort Mack to earn a pay check. A significant portion of the cheque was deducted in Ottawa taxes, where the funds were transferred to help social services in Quebec and the Maritimes. Now, some of those equalization recipients are voting for foreign oil. Some are actively fighting against Alberta.
The Western Standard ran this headline about the Bloc Quebecois.
The truth is that many people in Canada are against Alberta’s resource development, even though they use fuel in cars, in jet fuel, and in plastics.
Faced with losing their jobs, Albertans are looking at each other and saying, “what the heck is going on?” “What should we do?”
The Electric Vehicles for Municipalities (EVM) program provides funding to municipalities to assist their transition to a fleet of electrically-fuelled Electric Vehicles (EVs). The EVM program supports more efficient and lower greenhouse gas emitting vehicles, EV Charging Stations, and Feasibility Studies that enable informed decision-making.
Millions of dollars of grants are also being poured out to help youth get jobs. When the government reads headlines about 1 in 5 males in Alberta unemployed, you know grants are available.
But few people understand grants. When I called a grant agency just last week about a program to hire youth for summer (not Canada Summer Job Grant), the grant delivery organization revealed to me they have more money to give away than they can spend – but they need access to companies to apply!
How crazy is that?
And these are just two short stories about government grants.
PRIVATE SECTOR IN THE GRANT GAME
Just a week ago the Amazon founder jumped into grant game announcing a $10 billion fund to fight climate change. Here was the post:
Can you see the last paragraph that says “grants?” Grants are the easiest way to allocate capital.
Now some astute readers might be asking, “why are businesses getting into the grant game. Is it some side passion?”
Maybe, but I believe it’s a risk-mitigation strategy as well.
The environmental left is very smart and use every trick in the book to support its cause, and their members are winning by a landslide. Just read the TECH withdraw letter from Fort McMurray as one piece of evidence.
As a result of this battle, the private sector is now jumping into the climate change fight in a huge way.
In an insightful piece written by Washington Post journalist Dino Grandoni, he writes that, “Climate activists have staged protests at JPMorgan branches in recent months over the bank’s outsize role in underwriting the oil, gas and coal industries.”
The article provides a fascinating insight in these two paragraphs:
Since President Trump’s election in 2016, environmental groups have turned their attention to Wall Street banks, insurance firms and other private-sector players as their increasingly urgent calls to address climate change have largely fallen on deaf ears in the White House and the GOP-controlled Senate.
Climate activists “have been looking for other ways to stop the growth of the fossil fuel industry,” said Ben Cushing, a climate campaigner at the Sierra Club. “Getting major Wall Street firms to take climate change seriously is important no matter what party is in power.”
What does this mean for you?
It means governments and corporations are under attack, and both entities will use government grants or private grants to show the environmental left that they are doing their part to combat climate change.
It’s a massive economic opportunity that astute Alberta post-secondary institutions, entrepreneurs, municipalities, and non-profits should be all over.
But here’s what is crazy: most aren’t maximizing their potential in grants. Most people are too busy with their head down, even though they are getting run over by this train. Few people take the time to educate themselves on grants, but grants could have a positive impact on their bottom line.
There is grant money waiting for YOU! BUT if you step in a “grant trap,” your application is a NO! Learn the FIVE most common errors to AVOID in government grants! Get the 5 Grant Gotchas now to save you countless hours.
First, you can get control of government grants in your organization. I publish a private grant newsletter twice a month that tracks millions of grants in each issue.
One Alberta University is already loving its value and understanding its potential:
“We absolutely love our subscription to the Alberta Gazette!…I know that there will be many funding opportunities for us over the next several months through Alberta Grant Gazette!” Jelena Bojic Director, Community Relations – Concordia University of Edmonton
You can sign up for the gazette here and start getting control of grants in your life: https://albertabusinessgrants.ca/gazette-checkout/.
Second, you can get educated on grants. Grants combine government, politics, protestors, climate change, youth, and more. They are complicated, but those who seek to understand them will excel in this changing economy. My new book The Ultimate Guide for Winning Government Grants: 100 Golden Grant Rules can be found here: https://albertabusinessgrants.ca/100-grant-rules/.
Third, many Albertans reading this article are feeling confused about our current political and economic climate. Ottawa feels more like a foe than friend. For many Albertans, Quebecers feel more like an economic enemy than partner in confederation.
Is it time for you to pivot?
All levels of government are trying to help with grants, even the City of Calgary with its OCIF grant program.
Source: Calgary Herald October, 2019
To all the entrepreneurs, municipalities, and post-secondary institutions in Alberta, government grants provide a real and prosperous way for you to excel during these challenging times. You don’t have to like it, but I hope you are beginning to understand it.
Sincerely,
David Kincade
Grant Writer & Publisher Alberta Grant Gazette
Author, The Ultimate Guide for Winning Government Grants: 100 Golden Grant Rules
davidk@albertabusinessgrants.ca
780-297-6177
Northern and Regional Economic Development Program: receive up to $200,000 to support eligible project costs. Deadline: January 22, 2023.
Stabilize Program – Adapt and Innovate Stream: This funding will help protect and promote Alberta sport and cultural identity, support tourism, and restore community vibrancy. Deadline: January 31, 2023.
Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Challenge is now open for application. Up to 2 grand prizes of CAD $1.25M open to all finalists. Deadline: March 1, 2023.
Canada Post Community Foundation provides grants to projects that improves the life of children and youth. Next application opens in March 2023.
Housing Supply Challenge: Round 4 – Building for the Future: Selected solutions will share a pool of $38.5M. Deadline: April 13, 2023.
The Other Initiatives Program (OIP) provides financial assistance for community-based projects that fall outside the scope of all other Community Grants funding streams. Apply now.
Creating new child care spaces or starting new child care programs? Child care – Space Creation Grant application is ongoing.
Community Economic Development and Diversification (CEDD): Funding for projects that support business development and community economic growth.
The Continuing Medical Education (CME) program supports continuous professional development for physicians with up to $2,100. Deadline: January 27, 2023.
Alliance International Quantum grants: Up to $25,000 for one year. Next deadline: January 31, 2023.
Connection Grants: access up to $50,000 or higher amounts can be considered if well justified. Next deadline: February 1, 2023.
Insight Development Grants: valued at $7,000 to $75,000 over one to two years. Deadline: February 2, 2023.
Collaborative Research and Training Experience program provides up to $150,000 in the first year and up to $300,000 for up to five subsequent years. Send your LoI until May 1, 2023.
Application is open to NSERC-National Science Foundation – Collaboration on quantum science and artificial intelligence. Click for more information.
Exceptional Opportunities Fund is designed to assist institutions and their partners in seizing such unique opportunities.
National Housing Strategy Longitudinal Outcomes Research Grant: a total of $4.8 million available in this program.
Imperial Research Grant: is made to full-time faculty members to support research work carried out by students under their direction. Learn more.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is seeking to develop a portable test to detect Environmental Domoic Acid in marine waters. Deadline: January 31, 2023.
Financial support for technology innovation through NRC IRAP: access an increased funding threshold of up to $10 million for larger research and development projects.
The Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) is offering SMEs a grant of up to $15,000 to upgrade or adopt digital technologies. Application is still ongoing.
High-throughput and Secure Networks Challenge program: funding for projects is up to 2 years in duration with maximum funding of $100,000 CAD per year.
Alberta Digital Traction is a funding program of up to $50,000 to cover SMEs software development.
Remote Area Heating Allowance (RAHA) program is still accepting applications until March 31, 2023.
Connect to Innovate program committed $585 million to improve connectivity in over 975 rural and remote communities by 2023. Application is still ongoing.
Accelerate Fund: $23 million angel matching fund available for Alberta startups. Application is ongoing.
Accelerating innovations to commercialization: Qualified SMEs may be eligible for up to $150,000 in funding over a maximum one-year term.
CRIN Money Talks: Accelerators. Date: January 18, 2023.
2023 Métis Entrepreneurial Excellence Awards event. Date: January 20, 2023.
Join the conversation with four successful women leaders in our next event of Women in Leadership series – Women Leaders panel discussion! Date: January 23, 2023.
Cleantech Forum North America will be back in Palm Springs, CA. Date: January 23-25, 2023.
Building a Sustainable Business: a webinar hosted by Startup Canada, in partnership with Canada’s Investment Readiness Program. Date: January 24, 2023.
CRIN – PTAC Digital Spotlight: Actionable Outcomes from Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Date: January 26, 2023.
Calgary Arts Development shares information about their 2023 grant investment programs. Date: January 26, 2023.
Business Intelligence Webinar – Optimizing Your Business Productivity. Date: January 30, 2023.
Advancing Agrifood through Artificial Intelligence. Date: February 1, 2023.
Exploring Alberta’s Growing Environmental Workforce. Date: February 1, 2023.
Sustainable Communities Conference (SCC) 2023. Date: February 7 – 10, 2023.
CENGN Summit is back in person. Clear your calendars for February 9th, 2023.
New Food Invest 2023. Date: February 13, 2023.
The Food, Fuel, & Fertilizer Business Summit. Date: February 14 – 15, 2023.
Canada’s Agricultural Day will be celebrated on February 15, 2023! Mark your calendars now.
Alberta Esports Expo. Date: February 18 – 19, 2023.
StrikeUP 2023: Free Digital Conference for Women Entrepreneurs. Date: March 2, 2023.
SXSW 2023 Music Festival line up announced. Date: March 10-19, 2023.
Inventure$: The Startup and Innovation Event. Date: May 31 – June 2, 2023.
I offer live group Zoom information sessions for this course. You can pick a time and speak with me live using this link.
The course is eligible for training grants, such as the Canada-Alberta Job Grant. Students have been successful in obtaining this grant, making the entire course only $1,650 plus GST. The grant even covers up to 100% of the cost if you meet the unemployed criteria. You can find everything you need to apply for the grant, including the course syllabus, on this page.
For More Information Contact
David Kincade, MA
Grant Writer
Author of 100 Golden Grant Rules
albertabusinessgrants.ca
davidk@albertabusinessgrants.ca
780-297-6177
p.s., You can do it. Keep going.
Along the top of the site, you will see a "call to action." It's an orange bar.
Alberta Business Grants
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
There is grant money waiting for YOU! BUT if you step in a “grant trap,” your application is a NO! Learn the FIVE most common errors to AVOID in government grants! Get the 5 Grant Gotchas now to save you countless hours.
