Backgrounder: Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund

Backgrounder

Climate change is happening and it is affecting Canadian communities from coast-to-coast-to-coast. More and more Canadians realize that natural hazards like floods, wildland fires and winter storms are increasing in frequency and intensity. For many communities, these hazards are significantly affecting critical infrastructure such as transport, power grids, water supply, sewage, buildings and dikes. Infrastructure damage can result in health and safety risks, interruptions in essential community services and increasingly high costs for recovery and replacement.

The Government of Canada’s Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF) is a 10-year, $2 billion national program designed to help communities better withstand current and future risks of natural hazards. DMAF will support large-scale infrastructure projects with a minimum cost of $20 million. 

DMAF will support changing and reinforcing existing public infrastructure, as well as building new public infrastructure including natural infrastructure, like wetlands, or built infrastructure, dams or dikes, to help address climate risks and protect communities from natural disasters.

Projects funded through DMAF will be completed by 2027-28.

Who can apply?

Eligible applicants include, but are not limited to:

  • provinces and territories;
  • municipal and regional governments;
  • Canadian public or not-for-profit post-secondary institutions that partner with a Canadian municipality;
  • Canadian private sector bodies, including for-profit organizations that partner with a Canadian municipality;
  • not-for-profit organizations; and,
  • Indigenous recipients (e.g., band councils and First Nation, Inuit or Métis government or authority)
  • Not-for-profit organizations whose central mandate is to improve indigenous outcomes

Note: Federal entities, including federal Crown corporations, are not eligible for DMAF funding.

Partnerships among eligible recipients and across jurisdictions is encouraged.

Application process

The application process under DMAF consists of two phases:

Step I: Expression of Interest (EOI) Application (due date: July 31, 2018, at 7:00 pm Pacific Time)

  • The EOI Application is a mandatory component of the application process.
  • The EOI Application Form must submitted to Infrastructure Canada.
  • Infrastructure Canada will perform an eligibility assessment on all complete applications submitted after the deadline.
  • Eligible projects under Step I will be invited to submit a Full Application and proceed to Step II.

Step II: Full Application

  • Successful Applicants will receive the Full Application Form by email and will be required to submit a completed form to Infrastructure Canada before the deadline.
  • Infrastructure Canada will perform a merit assessment on all complete applications submitted before the Full Application deadline.

DMAF funding will be allocated through intakes until the funding envelope has been exhausted.

In the case of emergency incidents, the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, in consultation with the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, may accept projects for consideration outside the formal intake process.

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