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Officials wait to use new portal

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Municipal leaders are eager to use a new Alberta Municipal Affairs web portal designed to reduce time and energy spent on government grant applications.

About 80 administrators from Central Alberta met in Red Deer on Wednesday to see first-hand how the government has tried to reduce the complicated process of applying for grants.

After a review involving input from municipalities in December, 23 streamlined programs can now be accessed across 10 government departments through a single web portal.

City of Red Deer Corporate Services Department director Lorraine Poth said she was pleased after seeing a group presentation.

“We’re able to look at the various grants all in one consolidated group, as opposed to us having to go to each ministry, each different area and look for them,” Poth said.

The website is http://municipalaffairs.alberta.ca/municipalgrants.cfm

It will also let municipalities see if there are federal grants available to them. Poth said the site will help staff because before, they really had to understand what the grants were in order to find them on a government department website. “You had a greater possibility of missing one,” she said.

Val Delker, an employee in the accounting department of Big Valley, is also expecting an easier time of applying for grants.

“It’s a very complicated process and this can only help us get through it a little bit easier,” she said.

Stakeholders requested and received an online search function allowing municipalities to search for grants by type of project.

As well, municipal administrators will also have access to a downloadable iCalendar entry on the site, giving reminders ahead of time on deadlines.

The review also resulted in the consolidation of grants that had similar outcomes. There used to be 77 grants.

The government says overall funding to municipal grant programs was not affected as a result of the review.

ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com