Feds announce $3.3B COVID resilience fund
Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna announced a new COVID-19 resilience funding stream, worth $3.3 billion that provinces, territories and municipalities can access to build infrastructure projects quicker.
The announcement came on August 5, and will see the federal government commit to funding up to 80 percent of eligible project costs for provinces, municipalities and not-for-profit organizations, and up to 100 percent for territorial and Indigenous projects. The funding is being provided through the $33-billion Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
The COVID-19 Resilience stream will fund the following types of infrastructure projects:
- retrofits, repairs and upgrades to provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous buildings, health infrastructure and schools,
- COVID-19 response infrastructure, including measures to support physical distancing,
- active transportation infrastructure, including parks, trails, foot bridges, bike lanes and multi-use paths, and
- disaster mitigation and adaptation projects, including natural infrastructure, flood and fire mitigation, and tree planting and related infrastructure.
To be eligible for funding under the COVID-19 Resilience stream, the project’s eligible costs must be under $10 million, construction must be started no later than September 30, 2021, and it must be completed by the end of 2021 (or by the end of 2022 in the territories and in remote communities).
For projects that can start sooner than September 2021, eligibility criteria in the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program’s other existing streams have also been expanded. For example, mobile phone and cellular projects are now eligible under the Rural and Northern Infrastructure stream, and inter-city transit projects are now eligible.
Additionally, the government has created a simplified funding application process and accelerated approvals to ensure that projects can get underway as soon as possible. For example, provinces and territories will be able to submit lists of quick-start, short-term projects to Infrastructure Canada for consideration rather than project-by-project proposals.
The application process will also focus on the essential elements required for Infrastructure Canada’s review and approval like asset class, location, description, dates, and financial information.
These changes, says the federal government, are designed as short-term measures to address the current situation while we continue to work towards the long-term infrastructure objectives, including better public transit, more high-speed broadband, wastewater infrastructure and clean energy projects.
“Our government recognizes that with the health and economic challenges presented by COVID-19, we need to support Canadians to protect their health, improve their quality of life, and create jobs,” said McKenna. “That's why we've changed our infrastructure program to make it easier to invest in making schools and long term care facilities safe for children and aging parents and to build projects that make it easier for people to get out and exercise and appreciate nature. Canada’s infrastructure plan invests in thousands of projects, creates jobs across the country and builds stronger communities.”
Ontario’s share of the funding allocation is nearly $1.2 billion.