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Water Today Title April 16, 2024

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Features

Update 2018/3/15
Infrastructure

FEDERAL AND ONTARIO MINISTERS OF INFRASTRUCTURE ANNOUNCE BILATERAL AGREEMENT TO PROVIDE FUNDING FOR NEXT DECADE



This story is brought to you in part by Biomass Recycle


By Cori Marshall

Federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, Amarjeet Sohi, and the Ontario Minister of Infrastructure, Bob Chiarelli, "announced the signing of a bilateral agreement" today in Mississauga, Ontario, according to the Infrastructure Canada Press release.

The agreement will see the federal government "provide more than $11.8 billion through the Investing in Canada plan over the next decade." Further projects that will eventually be supported by this funding "will be cost-shared" with Ontario, and "will have a total value of over $31 billion, including $10 billion committed by the Ontario government."

Cost sharing is the working model for federal funding, as "more than $33 billion in federal funding will be invested through new bilateral agreements with provinces and territories."

WaterToday has covered the greening of infrastructure and renewable energy, of the $2,848,855,330 in funding for green infrastructure projects, $2,350,305,647 is coming from Ontario. Among the expected outcomes of this spending, communities will be able to better manage more renewable energy, increase "capacity to treat and manage wastewater, (as well as) increased access to potable water."

Expected Outcomes of Completed Green Infrastructure Projects
  • Increased capacity to manage more renewable energy
  • Increased access to clean energy transportation
  • Increased energy efficiency of buildings
  • Increased generation of clean energy
  • Increased structural capacity and increased natural capacity to adapt to climate change impacts, natural disasters and extreme weather events
  • Increased capacity to treat and manage wastewater and stormwater
  • Increased access to potable water
  • Increased capacity to reduce or remediate soil and air pollutants
Backgrounder: Canada and Ontario to make significant infrastructure investments that will improve the lives of Canadians

Some of the billions that were announced today are earmarked for specific projects, the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Stage 2 project, for example; we asked Minister Sohi whether or not all of the spending had been approved or if new projects would be able to apply for this funding.

Minister Sohi assured that "this is all new funding though there are a few projects that were approved earlier." The funding "will be available for green infrastructure projects that reduce the impacts of climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve water quality," the Minister added.

The green infrastructure component of the announcement has numerous expected outcomes when projects are completed. Regarding oversight to ensure that the goals are met, beyond committees and advisors, project applicants are required to perform a screen analysis. Minister Sohi explained that these analyses look at the projects "through a green or climate change lens," and he added, "the work begins in the very early stages of the project." Applicants are then required to provide that information to the government so that they too can perform the analysis.

This announcement is positive in building infrastructure that helps communities adapt to potential climate change impacts and demonstrates a willingness on the part of governments at two levels to commit large sums of money to building cleaner, greener infrastructure.

cori.m@watertoday.ca






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