British Columbia and Saskatchewan are pursuing provincial education grants through Heritage Education Funds, which support families saving for post-secondary education for their children. These will be deposited directly into the child’s Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP).

Read: Transition from group to self-directed RESPs

Many Canadian families already have federal incentives such as the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG), which contributes up to 20% of the first $2,500 of your annual contributions into an RESP. Clients can receive the maximum of $7,200 in CESG per eligible child, and in addition, the federal government provides a one time initial contribution of $500, and then annually $100 into RESPs. This incentive is the Canada Learning Bond (CLB).

And if clients are residents of Alberta or Quebec, they can gain even more through their provincial governments with the Alberta Centennial Education Savings Plan (ACES) or the Quebec Education Savings Incentive (QESI).

Read: Use tax refunds to invest in RESPs

Saskatchewan recently announced the Saskatchewan Advantage Grant for Education Savings (SAGES), which will launch in fall 2013. This grant is expected to assist over 83,000 children under 18 years of age, who have already contributed to an RESP this year. The grant will be retroactive to January 1, 2013, but the grant won’t be processed until after fall 2013.

SAGES will be deposited directly in the beneficiaries RESP at the rate of 10% of the subscriber’s annual contribution, with an annual maximum of $250. The lifetime maximum per child is $4,500.

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British Columbia’s proposed grant; the BC Training Education and Savings Grant will provide eligible families $1,200 per child. Requirements state the child must be a resident of BC, born on or after January 1, 2007 and must have an RESP. To qualify, the RESP subscriber must complete the application once the child turns six years old, and submit before the child turns seven. The official grant start date has not been confirmed, but the government says it will likely be in late 2014 or early 2015. Eligible families will receive notice to apply for the grant as soon as the administrative process is in place.