Infrastructure Canada offers $3.3 billion for pandemic-resilient projects

Screen shot from Infrastructure Canada press conference.

Earlier today, federal minister of infrastructure and communities Catherine McKenna (pictured) announced adjustments to the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program to help ensure federal funding supports a range of pandemic-resilient projects at the province and territory level.

“Our government recognizes, with the challenges presented by COVID-19, we need to support Canadians to protect their health, improve their quality of life and create jobs,” says McKenna.

The goal of Infrastructure Canada’s new COVID-19 resilience funding stream, worth up to $3.3 billion, is to make public buildings and infrastructure safer for use during the health and economic crisis, e.g. retrofitting schools, upgrading hospitals and long-term care homes and building new parks and paths. Other changes, such as disaster mitigation projects to protect against floods and fires, will support longer-term sustainability goals.

The projects will be eligible for a larger federal cost share than before—up to 80% for provinces, municipalities and not-for-profit organizations and 100% for designated remote, northern and territorial projects—and a simplified funding application process and accelerated approvals aim to get them underway as soon as possible.

The following are the maximum allocations from the new stream:

• Newfoundland and Labrador: $55,584,285
• Prince Edward Island: $36,697,732
• Nova Scotia: $82,849,316
• New Brunswick: $67,321,757
• Quebec: $753,593,792
• Ontario: $1,184,648,346
• Manitoba: $117,207,615
• Saskatchewan: $89,632,301
• Alberta: $339,785,704
• British Columbia: $412,968,016
• Yukon: $44,561,730
• Northwest Territories: $57,077,683
• Nunavut: $56,676,162

Meanwhile, Infrastructure Canada’s eligibility criteria have been expanded for projects in other streams, such as inter-city transit and rural broadband communications infrastructure, that can be started before Sept. 30.