Cold Lake Rural Renewal Stream changes made

Cold Lake, AB – Changes to Cold Lake’s Rural Renewal Stream program were made at the Feb. 24 council meeting after the city was informed that it would be allocated a total of 24 nominees under the program for 2026. 

After the Government of Alberta announced several program changes that came into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, the City of Cold Lake took time to assess its processes for the Rural Renewal Stream. Some of the provincial changes included community allocations, which affect the total number of nominations each community will receive; restrictions on residence for job eligibility; and a one-year expiry date on nomination letters.

“The program has been well used, with a lot of workers in our community receiving endorsement letters since the program started in 2023,” said Mayor Bob Mattice. “Local businesses have been using the program to help find workers for hard-to-fill positions, but with significant changes to federal immigration targets, this program will see a sharp decline in the number of people it can support.” 

With a community allocation of 24 nominations through the Rural Renewal Stream for 2026, the City of Cold Lake will be focusing on supporting those individuals already in the Expression of Interest pool who may need a renewal of their nomination letter. 

Administration noted that the program has over 100 employees nominated by the City of Cold Lake already sitting in the Expression of Interest pool. These individuals are waiting to be called upon by the province to continue with their application. Given that the existing pool of nominees is over four times the community’s total allocation for 2026, the city will be focusing on allowing as many of the current nominees to finish their application before assessing whether additional nominees are needed to reach the community’s total allocation. In some cases, nominated individuals are not called upon by the province to continue with their application for a variety of reasons – for instance, the type of employment may not be a provincial priority. 

The City of Cold Lake has processed all applications received prior to Feb. 24, which will be considered at the city’s next Economic Development Advisory Committee meeting. Applications for new endorsement letters are now paused, allowing the city to observe the progress made by Cold Lake nominees.

“If a few months go by and we’ve seen very little movement from those in the pool being invited to move forward, we may consider opening up new applications again,” said Mattice. “But until we receive information from the Government of Alberta on how many of our allocated nominations have been used, we don’t want to flood the system.”

The process for renewals of current endorsement letters is also being streamlined. As it stands, employees with a letter, even if it is expired, are still able to enter their Expression of Interest with the Rural Renewal Stream at the provincial level. Only if they are invited to proceed with the Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP) do they need an up-to-date letter. 

Businesses interested in nominating a foreign national employee under the rural renewal stream or looking to fill a position using the program, can email ecdev@coldlake.com with the positions they are having trouble filling. In the event that the City’s allocation is not being used by existing nominees, this list will be used to help determine whether nominations should be reopened. 

Nominated employees who have received an invitation to apply to AAIP and require their letter renewed can visit www.coldlake.com/ruralrenewal and fill in the mandatory form with the required documentation.

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