Up-front multi-year funding

• Clean technologies and energy efficiencies enhance economic performance
• Canada’s natural resources are sustainable

The GMF is a revolving fund administered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). The GMF provides municipalities and municipal partners with knowledge services and funding for environmental projects through grants, loans, and loan guarantees. Through a series of budget decisions, the GMF has received grants totaling $1.625 billion^{Footnote 1} from the Government of Canada since its inception in 2000. Most recently, Budget 2019 announced an additional $950 million investment in the GMF to further energy efficiency in the built environment.

The GMF was established to enhance Canadians’ quality of life by improving air, water, and soil quality, and protecting the climate. It supports sustainable community development through projects that meet the triple bottom-line criteria of delivering significant environmental, economic, and social benefits. The GMF Core Offer supports plans, studies, pilot projects, and capital projects in five sectors: brownfields, energy, transportation, waste, and water. It also supports projects that are especially innovative but do not fit these categories through a Signature Initiatives offer.

Budget 2019 funding is enabling the GMF to support greener energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reductions through three new funding streams: Sustainable Affordable Housing, Community Efficiency Financing, and Collaboration on Community Climate Action, including the creation of a network of seven Low Carbon Cities Canada (LC3) centres.

The 2019 Funding Agreement between the FCM and the Government of Canada outlines the amount of GMF financing available for municipal projects and the governance structures of the GMF. The FCM board is empowered to approve grants of up to 80% of eligible costs for plans, studies, and pilot projects, targeting annual disbursements between $4.5 and $9.5 million. For other eligible projects, the GMF can provide grants up to 50% of eligible costs and fund up to 80% of eligible costs for projects deemed to be exceptional through a combination of grants and loans, targeting annual disbursements between $7.5 and $22.5 million in grants and between $50 and $150 million in loans. Additionally, $335.5 million of the Budget 2019 investment is earmarked for grants that the GMF will disburse, targeting between $30 and $90 million annually beginning in 2020-21.

The FCM Board of Directors is the decision-making body for the GMF and has two advisory bodies that assist in the GMF’s governance. The GMF Council advises the Board on the provisions of the Funding Agreement, the approval of eligible projects, the appropriate allocation of funds, and other governance matters. Six of the 18 members of the GMF Council are federal members. The FCM Board, based on recommendations from the federal Ministers, appoints two federal members from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), two from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), one from Infrastructure Canada (INFC), and one from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The Board also appoints up to ten NRCan employees to sit on the GMF Peer Review Committee and use their technical and financial expertise to contribute to the evaluation of project proposals.