Federal Budget 2019 marks a turning point for cities and communities across Canada. It doubles down on the idea of working directly with municipalities—and their partners and stakeholders—to build better lives for Canadians nationwide.
One way it does that is by building on a success story of federal-municipal collaboration. Budget 2019 commits $1 billion to delivering results for Canadians directly through FCM.
Since 2000, FCM’s Green Municipal Fund alone has deployed $900M in financing to 1,250+ sustainability initiatives—while preserving every dollar of capital supplied by government. With its proven infrastructure and expertise, FCM is ready to deliver on a significantly larger scale.
Learn more about the following initiatives announced in Budget 2019:
- Sustainable Affordable Housing Innovation Fund
- Community EcoEfficiency Acceleration Fund
- LC3-FCM Collaboration on Community Climate Action
- Municipal Asset Management Capacity Fund
Sustainable Affordable Housing Innovation Fund
What is it?
The goal of the Sustainable Affordable Housing Innovation Fund is to support the development of sustainable affordable housing models and demonstration projects. The Fund is estimated to generate up to 4,800 new and retrofitted affordable and social housing units across communities of all sizes throughout Canada.
How will it help Canadians?
Housing affordability challenges are deeply local. Safe, affordable and sustainable housing is the bedrock of livable, competitive cities—and of the stronger Canada we all aspire to build. Yet our cities are grappling with a serious housing crisis. By addressing the energy performance of affordable and social housing, FCM can improve the long-term affordability of energy costs for families and housing providers.
How would it work?
This Fund would support existing and new affordable and social housing projects operated by both municipal and community-based housing providers. Funded projects would include significant energy efficiency and onsite generation retrofits to existing affordable and social housing. It would also apply to new builds with high energy performance and onsite renewable generation built in.
Community EcoEfficiency Acceleration Fund
What is it?
The goal of the Community EcoEfficiency Acceleration Fund is to accelerate community financing for homeowners as they make their homes more affordable and energy efficient. The Fund is estimated to support between 8,000 and 20,000 household energy projects in up to 200 municipalities of all sizes across Canada.
How will it help Canadians?
Canadians across the country want to make their homes more affordable and responsible energy usage is a major part of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While several federal and provincial residential eco-efficiency programs have been launched over the last 20 years, they have typically been small-scale opportunities such as improving insulation, sealing, high-efficiency energy appliances, and have not been consistently available.
How would it work?
This Fund would make this programming accessible and tailored to local conditions—and municipalities are perfectly placed to achieve both. One model that has demonstrated clear community benefits is the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) model. This model is adaptable to finance a broad range of initiatives at the individual home level such as solar hot water systems, roof top solar PV, major energy efficiency retrofits, combined heat and power units, and more.
While capital intensive, these models provide significant long-term operating costs savings. In the United States, billions of dollars worth of these projects have been deployed through PACE models.
LC3-FCM Collaboration on Community Climate Action
What is it?
The LC3-FCM Collaboration on Community Climate Action initiative is a partnership between the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Low Carbon Cities Canada* (LC3), and seven urban centres in Vancouver and Lower Mainland, Edmonton, Calgary, Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Ottawa, Montreal Metropolitan Community and the Halifax region. It also includes support for cities and regions outside of those urban centers. This initiative will support cities and communities in reaching their full carbon emissions reduction potential while improving public health, increasing mobility, and boosting local job creation.
How will it help Canadians?
Reducing emissions has significant positive impacts on human health and on Canada’s economy. For example, it is estimated that fully implementing the objectives outlined in Canada’s Pan-Canadian Framework, which this program will contribute to, would result in 118,000 jobs and boost Canada’s GDP by 1% over the next 14 years.
How will it work?
The initiative will focus on taking proven low-carbon solutions to full-scale adoption in partnership with cities and communities. Funding will be divided between LC3 and FCM, with FCM funding cities and regions outside of the seven named above. Funding would be invested in demonstrating, de-risking and scaling up local solutions to climate change.
* LC3 was developed through a national consultation led by The Atmospheric Fund and funded by the Clean Economy Fund and the Canadian Urban Sustainability Practitioners.
Municipal Asset Management Capacity Fund
What is it?
Asset management is a proven way to reduce the cost of operating public infrastructure. As part of the existing FCM suite of programs, the Municipal Asset Management Capacity Fund supports municipalities, by funding capacity building and training, to strengthen infrastructure planning.
How will it help Canadians?
The better municipalities of all sizes are armed with effective asset management practices and plans, the more effectively they will be able to maintain high levels of service and quality of life to their citizens. For larger urban centres with access to more resources, maintaining and preparing local infrastructure and other assets is easier. Yet many smaller and medium sized municipalities are limited to apply comprehensive asset management practices. Practicing modern asset management practices is critical to support better planning and management of municipal infrastructure, improving the overall quality of life for small and medium sized communities across Canada.
How would it work?
This investment will enable direct funding support to up to 500 municipalities, most being smaller and more rural. To date, this program has provided capacity building through training and technical assistance to more than 800 municipalities across Canada.
This Municipal Asset Management Program renewal will ensure municipalities can continue to raise their capacity and make the most of new infrastructure investments.
Want more information?
We will share more information about these investments and related funding opportunities in the coming months. Sign up to FCM Connect and get the latest updates delivered to your inbox.