COLD LAKE - To help tackle a shortage of licensed childcare spaces in Cold Lake, the City has launched the Child Care Space Incentive Program Policy.
The new program was officially approved at the May 27 regular City of Cold Lake council meeting with $90,000 in initial funding coming from the municipality’s contingency fund.
The policy provides capital funding of $1,500 per new childcare space, with grants starting at $15,000 and capped at $30,000 per project.
The funding is aimed at helping both for-profit and non-profit providers with capital costs associated with new builds, renovations, or expansions that lead to the creation of new provincially licensed child care spaces.
The $90,000 investment could create up to 60 new spaces in the community, this year.
Kristy Isert, General Manager of Corporate Services, described the May 27 agenda item as a routine step to formally assign funding, “The item being presented this evening is just a housekeeping item to allocate funds for the new incentive program.”
“While it's anticipated that the incentive could cost up to $150,000 if it was fully utilized, we are recommending that at this time council approve funding of $90,000 from contingency and then additional funding could be allocated during the 2026 budget deliberations,” she said.
Since the program is starting mid-year, the City expects the $90,000 allocation to be enough for 2025.
During the meeting, Mayor Craig Copeland asked what would happen to any unused funds.
Isert confirmed the process, stating, “As soon as funding is approved for a program and is allocated from a certain area, what we do is we restrict it, and then it will just sit separately until those funds could be either utilized for the program, or if at some time council decided to unrestrict those funds for some other purpose.”
Council made a motion to approve the $90,000 funding and is expects to revisit the program during 2026 budget talks, with a recommendation to allocate an additional $60,000 next year, if demand continues.
