About the Alberta Centennial Education Savings Plan

The Alberta Centennial Education Savings Plan will contribute $500 to the Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) of every child born to Alberta residents in 2005 and beyond. The program is designed to give parents an incentive to start planning and saving for their child’s post-secondary education as early as possible.

To get the $500 grant for their baby, a parent must first register the birth and obtain a social insurance number for the child. The next step is to open an RESP at a bank or with an RESP provider. The bank or RESP provider can then help guide parents through the application process for the Alberta Centennial Education Savings Grant.

Subsequent grants of $100 will be available to children attending school in Alberta at ages 8, 11 and 14. Under a legislative amendment passed in the fall of 2005, all children will be eligible for the grants in the years they reach these ages, provided parents invest at least $100 in an RESP before applying for the grant. The $100 program will officially become available on January 1, 2007. Children who turn 8, 11 or 14 on or after January 1, 2005 will be eligible for the program.
More details on the application process for this $100 RESP grant will follow soon.

This investment will have an important impact on future students, and is aligned with government’s current commitment to ensure that young Albertans already in or about to enter the Kindergarten to Grade 12 and post-secondary systems enjoy every possible advantage.

Alberta’s education system and the results achieved by Alberta students are among the best in the world. Government is committed to further investment in today’s learners and to improving upon our world class learning opportunities. As a province, we must ensure that we respond to the needs of today, while anticipating and taking action to meet the needs of tomorrow. Government’s comprehensive learning strategy, which includes the Alberta Centennial Educational Savings Plan, achieves this balance.