Funding program for municipal infrastructure opens new intake period

As work on the City's water supply project
continues, a new funding opportunity for future work has
been announced by the Provincial and Federal Governments
(map from City of Prince Rupert) 

A new infrastructure program that will commit up to 243 million dollars in combined federal/provincial funding has been announced, with municipal governments now able to put in their proposals for projects related to drinking water, waste water and solid waste programs.

The Environmental Quality Program will be accepting applications until August 29th with the Federal and Provincial government set to provide  up to 73.3% percent of the cost sharing on approved projects.

The Union of BC Municipalities issued the update for its membership on Wednesday, directing civic officials to the province of BC Website for more information.

The shared funding program is part of the Green infrastructure program hosted by both levels of government.

The Current intake requires that the participating municipality have the financial resources available to become involved in the cost shared projects, with municipalities limited to one application for this intake.

The program is also available for Regional Districts and First Nation communities,  with First Nations funding opportunities finding the Federal Provincial funding to cover 90 percent of any approved project.

The City of Prince Rupert has made use of the grant funding for some of their past programs, including the ongoing work on the first two phases of the Shawatlans water supply project.

Corinne Bomben, the City's Financial Officer outlined some of the city's infrastructure blue print back in December with an update for Council.

Water infrastructure requirements have made for a frequent theme for City Council consideration and also made for some of the focus from the Mayor's Hays 2.0 chat of April.

That priority given to the issue of the city's water supply would seem to suggest that the current intake of grant applications will be one that the City of Prince Rupert will want to participate in,  as they look to upgrade the aging system in place and move forward their plans for future expansions.

For more items of note related to the city's infrastructure issues see our archive page here.

Further background on City Council discussions can be examined from our archive here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review