Action plan for contaminated sites

The Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP) was established in 2005 as a 15-year program with funding of $4.54 billion from the Government of Canada. The program was renewed for another 15 years (2020 to 2034) with $1.16 billion announced in Budget 2019 for the first five years (Phase IV, 2020 to 2024). The objective of FCSAP is to reduce environmental and human health risks from known federal contaminated sites and associated federal financial liabilities, while focusing on the highest priority sites.

• History
• Policy framework
• Success stories
• Who is involved?

Since its creation in 2005, FCSAP has demonstrated the Government of Canada's long-term commitment to manage federal contaminated sites and the following results were achieved:

• assessment activities were conducted at 10,960 sites
• 7,700 site assessments were completed
• remediation activities took place at 2,200 sites across Canada
• remediation was completed at 1,040 sites
• care and maintenance work was undertaken at some sites to maintain necessary systems and prevent an increase in reclamation and closure costs

The Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory (FCSI) currently lists 23,663 sites, including:

• 4,980 active sites (which includes 2,496 priority sites for remediation)
• 1,838 suspected sites
• 16,845 closed sites (completed or no action required)

In FCSAP Phase IV (2020 to 2024) custodians will continue to remediate the highest priority contaminated sites, reducing their environmental and human health risks, and the associated federal financial liabilities. The program eligibility criteria has been expanded to improve program efficiency and to allow more sites to be addressed that may impact Indigenous people living on reserves or in Northern communities. The Government of Canada is investing $1.16 billion over five years (2020 to 2024) in FCSAP: $1.05 billion to remediate 1,316 contaminated sites, $24.3 million to assess 242 sites, and $83.4 million to manage this program. A list of the sites that are planned to be assessed and remediated in FCSAP Phase IV is presented below. Note that this list is subject to change; custodians sometimes experience project delays due to weather conditions or other unforeseen circumstances, which can affect their work plans.

Opportunities for contracts associated with contaminated sites are listed on CanadaBuys.gc.ca, the Government of Canada’s open procurement information service.