New councillors share eagerness to advocate for future grant funding

By BRENDAN MILLER on February 28, 2026.

bmiller@medicinehatnews.com

Recently elected city councillors who are sitting members of the corporate services committee say they will stand up and advocate for the city when seeking future grant funding from the provincial and federal government.

Coun. Chris Hellman, Coun. Brain Varga and Coun. Stuart Young asked city staff several questions seeking how the city council can take a more active role in helping secure funding for important projects during a Grant Revenue Development presentation Thursday.

“I think that advocacy from the council perspective is very important,” said Melanie Friesen, grant revenue development specialist with the city, who provided committee members and presentations on different grant types the city is eligible to apply for, a grant report for 2025 and 2026 as well as future opportunities for Medicine Hat.

Committee members heard the city manages two different types of grants, the first are allocation based grants. These grants are based on factors including the city’s population, kilometres of roads and tangible capital assets.

Allocation based grants require a municipality to submit a list of eligible projects, like roads and bridges, public transit, waste water and public safety, for approval before receiving their annual allocation.

“They’re pretty standard type grants that we would get and we utilize them on an annual basis,” said Friesen.

In the past 10 years these total grant allocations have averaged more than $15.4 million, however in 2024 Medicine Hat only received approximately $12.2 million, $13.2 million in 2025 and the city is forecasting to receive slightly less than $13 million this year.

“So the key takeaway is the allocation-based funding, while it’s stable and formula driven, it’s not growing at the pace of capital pressures,” explained Friesen. “And this reinforces why competitive grants are becoming increasingly important in closing funding gaps and supporting strategic initiatives.”

Competitive grants on the other hand are typically awarded on the merit of an application from the municipalities and are project specific. An example includes funding from the Alberta Environment’s Drought and Flood Protection Program or a federal grant from the Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund.

“They require project readiness, alignment with council and corporate priorities and internal coordination,” explained Friesen. “This is where the effort and strategy can influence outcomes.”

According to the report, the city received more than 4.4 million in competitive grant funding in 2023, more than $5.8 million in 2024 and slightly less than $7.2 million in 2025.

Friesen explains municipal dollars can increase the amount of grant funding the city receives.

“So most recently in 2025 the city contributed just under $4 million of funds to 21 grand-funded projects, that investment leveraged an additional $7.2 million in external grant funding equal to a 1.8 times return.”

Currently the city is awaiting the result of six competitive grant applications worth a total of more than $4.2 million for projects including airport equipment, multi-use paths, transit vehicle purchase, water management strategy, wage subsidies for summer students positions and an investment attraction campaign.

Five additional grant applications worth more than $5.5 million, including lighting and stage drapery for the Esplanade theatre, specialized PTSD training and Third Street SE rehabilitation and surface enhancement project, have been declined.

Following the presentation, councillors expressed their desire to advocate for more grant funding during their term.

“I feel like we will be flexible where, if the opportunities come up, and we need to be nimble, I think this council will absolutely work with the team and be like, how do we make that happen?” said Coun. Young.

“As long as we are in the know of what you want to do, then we can talk about it as council,” said Coun. Varga. “I think that’s a no brainer.”

“I think, given the restrictions and the challenges you discussed, we need to take any opportunity we can get to get that funding,” said Coun. Hellman.

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