Alberta opens applications for drought and flood protection grants

Alberta is accepting applications for 2027-28 drought and flood infrastructure grants, with municipalities, Indigenous communities and corporations in southeastern Alberta among those eligible to apply before a Dec. 21 deadline.

The province's Environment and Protected Areas ministry said on its program page that applications must be submitted by 2 p.m. on Dec. 21, 2026. The Drought and Flood Protection Program provides up to $25 million annually and caps individual project grants at $10 million.

Eligible applicants include municipalities, improvement districts, special areas, regional service commissions, Métis Settlements, First Nations, tribal councils and corporations. The program covers projects such as berms, dikes, flood walls, bank protection, retention ponds, stormwater infrastructure and the flood-proofing or relocation of critical infrastructure.

Under rules updated in the program's November 2026 guidelines, the provincial government will cover up to 50 per cent of eligible costs for municipalities and other public bodies. For corporate applicants, the government's share is capped at 30 per cent. Corporate applications must clearly demonstrate how a proposed project provides broader community benefits.

The updated guidelines, published as Version 3.0 in October 2026, also added community-scale natural infrastructure — such as floodplain re-naturalization and riverbank bio-engineering — as an eligible project type. Temporary flood mitigation equipment was added to the list of ineligible costs.

The program does not fund routine infrastructure maintenance, projects to protect land for future development, individual property mitigation, draining natural wetlands or flood protection for recreational infrastructure such as golf courses and campgrounds.

Ten per cent of any approved grant is held back until all final reporting requirements are received and reviewed, according to the overview and application guidelines posted Nov. 3 on the Alberta Open Government portal. Recipients are responsible for any additional costs caused by project delays, overruns or inflation.

The program runs for five years, from 2024-25 through 2028-29, for a total provincial commitment of $125 million. It replaced the Alberta Community Resilience Program, whose final grants were approved in 2020.

Applications must be emailed to DFPP@gov.ab.ca. Late applications will not be reviewed and must be resubmitted in a future intake period.