Apply for Small Community Opportunity Program (Canada)

Indigenous and small communities are vital to rural Alberta and its province’s long-term economic prosperity. The Small Community Opportunity Program recognizes the challenges and unique opportunities these communities face. Through grant funding, it enables Indigenous and small communities, and the non-profit organizations that support them to complete local projects that have a measurable impact driving innovation and growth in rural areas.

Funding Information

• Applicants may apply for up to 90 per cent of their total eligible project costs, up to a maximum of $100,000 and a minimum of $20,000. Applicants are responsible for funding a minimum of 10 per cent of their total eligible project costs, or more if the total project exceeds $100,000 and the applicant has requested the maximum grant amount permitted.

Eligible Project Costs

• Project costs that are eligible for the grant include:
  • Skills development training
  • Training equipment and supplies
  • Salary expenses for new contract staff to deliver a project
  • Equipment and supplies to deliver the project (computers, software, office supplies, etc.)
  • Eligible travel costs for hotel, meals and mileage based on Government of Alberta Travel, meal and hospitality expenses policy
  • Promotion and marketing activities related to the project
  • Project administration up to 10 per cent of the total eligible project costs.
  • Any other expense the Government of Alberta deems eligible under the Program.

Eligible Projects

• For a project to be eligible it must align with one or more of these strategic directions in the Plan:
  • Rural business supports and entrepreneurship
  • Support for labour force and skills development
  • Marketing and promoting rural tourism
  • Rural economic development capacity building.
• In addition, the project must address one or more of these priority areas:
  • Entrepreneurship and mentorship
  • Skills development
  • Small business supports
  • Partnerships, interconnectivity and collaboration.
• Projects must be completed within two years from the date the grant agreement between the Government of Alberta and the recipient is signed. Grant recipients must ensure their project will be sustainable beyond the two year funding and have a measurable impact supporting, improving or enhancing one or more of the following:
  • Rural and Indigenous communities
  • Local economic development
  • The agriculture sector.

Eligibility Criteria

• Indigenous communities, Metis Settlements and small municipalities may apply for the Program if they meet the characteristics of rural communities described in the Plan, which indicates they:
  • have a population less than 20,000,
  • have a limited geographic proximity (approximately 100 km or further) to population centres with more than 25,000 people that could provide employment and services,
  • may be remote or have in them, or around them, a significant amount of nature, natural resources, agricultural land and wilderness areas, and
  • have a workforce largely focused on primary economic activity, including oil and gas, agriculture and forestry.
• Eligible rural communities may work together or independently on local projects, or they may collaborate with nonprofit organizations. Applicants who choose to work together to achieve project success must demonstrate that the project identifies and benefits a single location. The Program may use discretion to determine whether a project is deemed local or regional.
• Non-profit organizations that collaborate on a project must be:
  • a Non-Profit Entity incorporated under Part 9 of the Companies Act (Alberta) or the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act with an economic development mandate. (A federally incorporated non-profit must partner with a provincially registered non-profit.)
  • a legal non-profit entity located in Alberta that is owned and controlled by an Indigenous community that has at least 51 per cent ownership. Agricultural societies are also eligible to apply. For the purposes of this Program, an “agricultural society” means:
    • an agricultural society organized under the Agricultural Societies Act (Alberta) or under The Agricultural Societies Ordinance, ONWT 1903 c17, or any earlier ordinance relating to agricultural societies, or
    • an organization designated in the Agricultural Societies Regulation as a society for purposes of the Agricultural Societies Act (Alberta).
• Applicants that previously received SCOP funding are eligible to apply to the Program with another distinct project or a project that builds on the previous project while meeting the grant eligibility and sustainability requirements. The Program will not fund projects deemed to create long-term funding dependency on the Government of Alberta.

For more information, visit Government of Alberta.