2023-24 Departmental Plan: Up-Front Multi-Year Funding

General information

Recipient information

Clayoquot Biosphere Trust (CBT)

For more information, please visit the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust site.

Start date

February 2000

End date

In perpetuity

Link to departmental results

Canadians have clean water

Link to Program Inventory

Water Quality and Ecosystems Partnerships

Purpose and objectives of the transfer payment program

Creation of an endowment fund for the CBT, which is the cornerstone of the Clayoquot Sound United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Biosphere Reserve. The CBT will use the income from the endowment fund to support local research, education and training in the Biosphere Reserve region.

Total funding approved

$12 million

Total funding received

$12 million (in 2000)

Planned funding in 2023-24

$0.0

Planned funding in 2024-25

$0.0

Planned funding in 2025-26

$0.0

Summary of annual plans of recipient

During 2022-23, the CBT will focus on the following objectives and deliverables:

• Deliver a range of grants for regional initiatives in the areas of research and environment, arts and culture, community development, youth and education, and conservation research.
• Publish a Vital Signs report for the Biosphere Region and communicating the report to local partners including residents, employers, networks, and governments.
• Proceed with the development of the Biosphere Centre - a social purpose, mixed-use building to serve as a permanent office for the CBT and a regional hub for communities, organizations, and researchers.
• Install wayfinding and interpretive signage communicating the significance of the UNESCO Biosphere designation to locals and visitors.
• Co-develop new governance roundtables to complement land vision processes and watershed planning in Clayoquot Sound.
• Increase regional land use information sharing and decision making with a focus on biodiversity conservation.
• Co-develop stewardship and restoration projects with First Nations that meaningfully contribute to the conservation of biodiversity within the Biosphere Region.

General information

Name of recipient

Green Municipal Fund (GMF)

For more information, please visit the Green Municipal Fund site.

Start date

February 2000

End date

No end date

Link to departmental result(s)

Canadian greenhouse gas and short-lived climate pollutant emissions are reduced

Canadian communities, economies, and ecosystems are more resilient

Link to Program Inventory

Clean Growth and Climate Change Mitigation

Description

Between 2000 and 2018, the Government of Canada endowed the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) with $50 million for grants and $625 million for endowment funding to administer a revolving fund for grants, loans and loan guarantees to encourage investment in municipal environmental projects. As per Budget 2019, the Government of Canada transferred an additional $950 million to the FCM for the GMF. Since its inception, the total amount transferred from the Government of Canada for the GMF amounts to $1.625 billion.

The GMF was established to have a positive impact on the health and the quality of life of Canadians by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and tackling the effects of climate change, improving local air, water and soil quality, and promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency by supporting environmental studies and projects within the municipal sector. Eligible projects may fall into one or more of the following categories: energy, water, waste, sustainable transportation, brownfields, or integrated community projects. Project funding streams established in 2019 focus on energy efficiency retrofits, sustainable housing and local community initiatives.

The amount of GMF financing available to municipalities is directly related to the environmental and socioeconomic benefits of the projects undertaken, with grant/loan combinations of up to 80% of eligible costs available for capital projects with exceptional environmental benefits.

As stipulated in the GMF Funding Agreement between the FCM and the Government of Canada, the FCM has created two advisory bodies: the Green Municipal Fund Council (GMF Council) and the Peer Review Committee. The GMF Council’s role is to assist the FCM Board of Directors—the GMF decision-making body—in approving projects proposed by municipalities. The 18-member GMF Council includes six federal members: two from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), two from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), one from Infrastructure Canada (INFC), and one from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). All ECCC members are appointed by the FCM Board of Directors based on recommendations from the Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

The GMF Peer Review Committee comprises 75 members, of which 20 are Government of Canada representatives (10 from ECCC; 10 from NRCan). Environment and Climate Change Canada Peer Reviewers provide the GMF and federal Council members with scientific expert advice on proposals for plans, studies or capital projects.

Total funding approved

$337,500,000

Total funding received

$337,500,000

Planned funding in 2023-24

$0

Planned funding in 2024-25

$0

Planned funding in 2025-26

$0

Summary of annual plans of recipient

GMF’s 2020-21 Annual Report, Forward together

Key Result Areas (KRAs):

The GMF planned activities for 2021-22 include the following KRAs:

• Empower innovation: focus on addressing the risks that municipalities and private-sector partners face when they try to adopt new and innovative solutions.
• Accelerate the replication of proven sustainable solutions: enhance the replication rate and mobilization of promising new solutions emerging from GMF.
• Create a roadmap of the municipal sector’s challenges and solution pathways: develop roadmaps to show municipalities how to achieve their overall sustainability objectives in each GMF focus subsector (i.e. energy, transportation, water, waste and land use and planning).
• Establish the business case for and economic benefits of sustainable solutions: deliver appropriate analysis and knowledge tools to support municipalities in their decision-making and due diligence around sustainable solutions.
• Be responsive to clients’ needs: establish a central advisory service system to optimize the benefits of GMF’s funding offers and the related processes, and help it respond to its clients’ needs.
• Leverage and mobilize GMF’s knowledge, decision tools and capacity-building support for planning and executing sustainable projects: outline a holistic approach to capacity building that enables GMF to address gaps.
• Collect and develop data to help direct the efforts of the municipal sector and its partners: FCM will collect data and make it available so that municipalities, GMF and its partners have the information they need to identify sustainability areas that easily address and have significant environmental and economic impact.
• Attract capital and investments to the municipal sustainability sector (lever investments) and help municipalities access funds and identify new revenue streams: better position the municipal sector to receive additional investments and stretch their budgets further.
• Ensure GMF’s sustainability and maximize its influence: ensure the endowment’s sound management in the long term while ensuring that it has the financial resources required to fulfill its mandate.
• Inspire municipalities and their partners by defining, recognizing and communicating the successes, lessons learned and triple bottom line benefits of sustainable solutions: better position GMF to communicate the key ingredients in successes as well as lessons learned.
• Maintain excellence in governance, due diligence, project funding and oversight while balancing risks with returns: development of a performance measurement system that will articulate GMF’s sector contributions and the progress it makes toward delivering on its mandate and ensuring optimal results from its operations.