Post-secondary graduates curious about careers with Alberta municipalities may want to add this task to their Family Day long weekend: apply for a public service internship along a road less travelled.
Deadline is Tuesday, Feb. 18, at noon to apply for positions under the Municipal Internship Program in 16 municipalities, the province announced earlier today.
Up to $1 million is budgeted for the program in 2025, and the government covers 100 per cent of interns’ salaries. The internships are 18 months long and promise a competitive salary, professional development, mentorship and experience.
Depending on the category of intern, municipalities with populations as small as 700 and as large as 125,000 are eligible to apply as hosts.
Employer uptake this year is a representative slice of what Alberta looks like beyond its major centres. Open to recent post-secondary graduates, the internship seeks applicants willing and able to work in places like the Municipal District of Greenview, Lacombe County, the City of Beaumont and the Town of Magrath.
Smaller municipalities provide interns with a broad-based introduction to public service — one that they might not get in Edmonton or Calgary, said Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver. And the municipalities themselves get to tap a pool of people not always available to them.
“Municipalities of all sizes do an amazing job in Alberta, but one of the challenges small and medium-sized municipalities sometimes face is having enough professionals interested in being part of the municipal world,” McIver said.
“So everybody wins. The municipalities get great professional, high-energy help, and the young people get invaluable career and life experience.”
Under a stream for potential administrators, positions are available in Greenview and Wainwright municipal districts; Camrose, St. Paul and Wetaskiwin counties; Hinton, Magrath and Stony Plain towns; and the city of Beaumont.
If being a financial officer is more your thing, that stream has internships available with the Municipal District of Bonnyville, Grande Prairie and Lamont counties, and the Town of Taber.
And finally, under the land-use planner stream, Lacombe County is a target municipality and so are the cities of Chestermere and Leduc.
McIver said: “Everybody wins. The municipalities get great professional, high-energy help, and the young people get invaluable career and life experience.”
Variety, less specialization and a direct connection to the community are among the benefits of ending up in, say, the MD of Bonnyville or the Town of Hinton.
“An intern really gets hands-on experience in a wide variety of municipal operations and management. And boy, that's invaluable. It's invaluable to the municipality and it's invaluable experience for the intern,” said McIver.
He said interns hear complaints and compliments directly from the people they meet on the street or at the front counter. And if they don’t come from a smaller community, they learn what it’s like to be part of the local social fabric.
Eligible applicants must have finished or will finish a post-secondary degree or diploma between Jan. 1, 2023, and April 30, 2025. They must be legally eligible to work in Canada, and they must not be employed as a permanent staff member of an Alberta municipality.
In this its 25th year, the program will approve its 394th intern in 2025. It is the longest-running program of its kind in Canada.
“The Municipal Internship Program has been an invaluable asset to Lacombe County, allowing us to mentor and develop future municipal leaders,” said Dale Freitag, planning services director with the central Alberta county immediately north of Red Deer.
Quoted in a government news release, he said participants gain hands-on experience across all aspects of municipal government. “We’ve benefited greatly from this program, with several interns successfully transitioning into full-time roles on our planning team."
Applicants will have to upload four documents to the province: a cover letter, a resumé, a personal profile and a transcript that backs up their eligibility.
They need to be prepared to live in or commute to the host municipality. And they should have a strong interest in a career in one of the three streams.
Visit alberta.ca/municipal-internship-program for more information, including full eligibility requirements and how to submit documents.
