Lloydminster council has approved its 2026 safe and healthy communities grant allocations.
Read more: Lloydminster grant policy update supports mental health
The objectives of the funding include, reducing costs to enforce legislation pertaining to addictive substances, providing education on the harms and risks of addictive substances and the cessation of the use of addictive substances.
Four applications received funding totalling $29,600 in asks. The approved grant budget for 2026 is $31,250 with recommendations totalling $27,400. The remaining $3,850 in surplus will be utilized by city-led initiatives, specifically, the Mental Health Working Group.
The funding comes from fees paid on business licenses.
“The funding for the safe and health communities grant comes from the business license bylaw fees collected for the categories of tobacco flavoured vapour product retailers and cannabis retailers,” said Patrick Lancaster, the City of Lloydminster’s social programs and services manager.
Extra fees are charged on each business license to collect money for the grant. Tracy Simpson, executive manager of community development services, laid out how much the extra fees on the business licenses are.
“The additional fees are $850 for tobacco flavoured or vape products retailer and $1,725 for a cannabis retailer in addition to their standard business license,” she said.
Coun. Michele Charles Gustafson asked how many applications are typically received for this grant.
“It does range a little bit from year-to-year, I would say four to five applications seems to be what we’ve seen over the last several years,” said Lancaster.
Charles Gustafson followed up by asking if they had to be for cessation or if they could be used for mental health and youth.
“They could be either,” responded Lancaster. “We actually believe with the shift in the policy going into next year’s call for applications, we are anticipating more applications from other groups.”
Council approved the grant allocations to the following groups:
- Lloydminster & Area Drug Strategy $7,200 for Move Your Mood
- Lloydminster & Area Drug Strategy $9,000 for An Influential Generation
- Lloydminster Public Library $6,200 for Lunch at LPL and Space for Mental Health
- Lloydminster Native Friendship Centre $5,000 for Oskayak Youth Centre After School Program.
Read more: Santa lands early in Lashburn
