Improve stormwater runoff quality from a local site. Finance a stormwater treatment solution with capital funding.

Get funded for initiatives that have the potential to remove 80% of total suspended solids (TSS) or a significant amount of other contaminants (e.g., E.coli, salt, grease) from a private or public site’s stormwater runoff. This funding helps Canadian cities and communities of all sizes protect local bodies of water through stormwater treatment.

Eligible capital projects must capture and treat all runoff by removing 80% of TSS or a significant amount of other contaminants such as E.coli, salt or grease, from a site’s stormwater runoff using a new build or retrofit solution. The target amount to be removed from ‘other contaminants’ will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

The maximum amount of funding that can be requested is $10M per proposal.

Eligible Project activities

• Natural or engineered systems that filter and retain stormwater, such as bioretention cells, filter strips, catch basin inserts, tree box filters, sub-surface collection facilities, cisterns, infiltration trenches, rain gardens, bio-swales, native vegetation
• Modifications to infrastructure to decrease the amount of impervious surfaces such as permeable pavement, curbless, gutterless, and reduced width streets;
• Prevention or treatment of contaminants (e.g., road salt, sand)
• Systems approaches that identify solutions that complement each other and may be applied across a watershed or drainage basin

Who Can Apply

• Municipal Governments
• Indigenous Governments

Funding Details 

Regular loans and grants: Receive a low-interest loan of up to $5 million and a grant worth up to 15% of the loan to cover up to 80% of total eligible costs.

High-ranking project loans and grants: These qualify for a low-interest loan of up to $10 million and a grant worth up to 15% of the loan to cover up to 80% of eligible costs.

Eligible Project Costs

Eligible administrative costs 

• Communication costs (e.g. long-distance calls or faxes)
• Permits or certifications required for the project
• Printing or photocopying by outside suppliers
• Acquisition of documents used exclusively for the project
• The cost of a financial audit for the capital project if required

Eligible capital costs 

• Costs for acquiring, developing, constructing, modernizing or leasing systems (equipment, hardware, software, etc.)
• Costs of construction, renovation or modernization of facilities and structures
  such as materials and installation costs

For brownfields projects: Road costs and servicing costs

• Servicing costs – whether they are for the immediate site or for the street
• Road costs – as part of an eligible remediation and redevelopment project
• Primary costs need to be for remediation of the land (i.e. linked to reducing greenfield development). The above costs are only eligible if they are tied to a remediation project and cannot be higher than the remediation costs.

Funding Deadline

Applications are accepted year round, though this program will close when all funding has been allocated.