Environment and Climate Change Canada is opening its annual call for proposals for eight environmental funding programs that contribute directly to the recovery of species at risk, fighting plastic pollution and climate change, restoring and protecting water quality in the Great Lakes and Lake Winnipeg, and improving the sustainability of ecosystems in Atlantic Canada.
Indigenous communities, landowners, environmental groups, schools, other levels of government and businesses, are invited to apply and become one of the 264 projects per year that typically receive grants and contribution funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada, said Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, in the announcement.
“Canadians across the country are stepping up with innovative solutions to some of our most pressing environmental challenges,” Wilkinson stated. “I encourage all eligible groups with innovative environmental projects to apply for funding. We look forward to supporting initiatives that will have a positive impact on our community and natural environment,” he added.
We just launched our call for proposals for eight of our environmental funding programs.
Apply now! https://t.co/K1qPyucODw pic.twitter.com/QhnmFcYkkc— Environment Canada (@environmentca) January 21, 2020
Subscribe to our Newsletter!
The latest environmental engineering news direct to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.
The eight funds primed to accept new applications include:
- Aboriginal Fund for Species at Risk
- Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk
- EcoAction Community Funding Program
- Atlantic Ecosystems Initiatives
- Environmental Damages Fund
- Great Lakes Protection Initiative
- Lake Winnipeg Basin Program
- Zero Plastic Waste Initiative
Under the Lake Winnipeg Basin Program, in 2019 for example, $33,000 went to the Prairie Spirit School Division for engaging students in RiverWatch – a water quality monitoring program. The project will provide students in Southern Manitoba, including youth in Treaty 1 and 2 territories, with a hands-on science experience that is helping reduce phosphorus in the Lake Winnipeg Basin.
The department invested $25.7 million in the Lake Winnipeg Basin Program, which is part of the $70.5 million in funding allocated for freshwater protection in Budget 2017.
Through the Atlantic Ecosystems Initiatives, Dalhousie University was awarded $189,692 in 2018 to provide an enhanced data and process-based scientific understanding of the sources and pathways of microbial contamination in coastal ecosystems of the Southern Gulf of St. Lawrence watershed.
Since program inception in 2000, and up to the end of March 2016, the Species at Risk Stream invested over $163.7 million to support more than 2,700 local species at risk conservation projects, benefitting the habitat of more than 240 species at risk each year.
