Grant money from the province could help speed up St. Albert's Internet.
Travis Peters, who heads the smart city initiative, is hoping to apply to the newly announced Community And Regional Economic Support (CARES) program, a $30 million program meant to support locally developed projects that promote long-term economic growth and diversification.
The program, launched Wednesday, combines money promised in the 2015 and 2016 budgets under a single two-year program.
Grants will be distributed along two funding streams and will cover half of the project's cost.
There is $26.45 million available for community economic development projects. Funding for these projects starts at $10,000. Another $2.2 million is set aside for regional economic development projects. The minimum application for these projects is $25,000.
Money has also been set aside for four Rural Alberta Business Centres and in support of economic recovery efforts in Fort McMurray.
Peters has two smart city projects in mind that could benefit from the new grant program. The first involves improving the city's broadband services.
St. Albert is in the process of laying a municipal fibre optic network, with the potential to expand into business areas. Peters is looking at whether funding could be leveraged to get this foundational infrastructure built.
"The ability of the city to build its municipal network is foundational to our activities in the smart city context," said Peters. "Further, if we do enable better connectivity in the business areas, that's obviously a benefit in terms of our ability to keep our business into the future and attract a greater percentage of businesses that need better connectivity too."
There is also potential to apply under the regional stream on behalf of the Smart City Alliance, a group dedicated to advancing technological and data-based solutions in municipalities. The funds would be used to support the alliance's activities and showcase the local economic benefits gained through the smart city industry in St. Albert.
"We're still looking at the details and figuring out how to best align it," said Peters.
NABI expresses frustrations
The Northern Alberta Business Incubator (NABI) is also looking to apply to the new grant program. Dar Schwanbeck, managing director, said he would be putting together a short list of projects for submission in the next week.
While he is excited about the new grant program, he also expressed some frustration towards the provincial government.
NABI currently has two projects in front of the department of economic development and trade, one for an expansion to its Campbell counselling facility and another for a province-wide leadership and growth voucher that would educate existing entrepreneurs on how to double their business.
Government favourably received both proposals, yet nothing has been done since they were submitted under the Enhanced Innovation Voucher and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Support program six months ago.
"Come on guys, we have 211,000 unemployed Albertans," he said. "Let's get going here."
Schwanbeck is currently in talks with the City of St. Albert, its partner in the project, about re-submitting the Campbell expansion under the new CARES program, given the lack of movement on the file.
The expansion project would allow NABI to double its counselling capacities, providing service to up to 500 startups annually.
St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Lynda Moffat said the program was "very positive." She plans to bring up the program in upcoming economic growth discussions with the city and other regional chambers.
Mayor Nolan Crouse sees the program's potential to spur regional and sub-regional economic collaboration. This grant could also help the Capital Region Board's newly established economic development group get its mandate off the ground.
The first round of applications opens Oct. 1.
