Ottawa: Healthy communities are places where Canadians have equal opportunities to be active, engaged, and connected. In this extraordinary pandemic, Canadians are discovering new ways to keep residents safe and healthy and to support economic recovery.
Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, has announced that a new Canada Healthy Communities Initiative will help local governments and community partners as they adapt to local economic, health, and social challenges.
The Canada Healthy Communities Initiative will provide up to $31 million in federal funding to support community-led solutions that respond to immediate and ongoing needs arising from COVID-19 over the next two years.
The Initiative will fund smaller-scale local projects under three main themes: creating safe and vibrant public spaces, improving mobility options, and digital solutions.
The goal is to fund projects that quickly help communities, including rural and remote communities, adapt to the new reality of COVID-19.
Potential projects could include: expanding outdoor seating on our main streets, remodeling a playground to allow for proper physical distancing, building multi-modal paths that would allow bikes, scooters, and personal mobility devices to share space with pedestrians and cars, or creating digital apps to allow residents to access municipal services remotely.
The possibilities are as varied as the spirit, imagination and unique needs of Canada’s communities in this extraordinary time.
Leveraging the great work not-for-profit organizations are already doing across Canada to help communities adapt to COVID-19, funding under the Initiative will be provided to a non-governmental not-for-profit organization, or group of organizations, selected through an open call for the application process.
The recipient(s) will then work directly with municipalities, local governments, Indigenous communities, and not-for-profit community partners to identify and fund homegrown solutions that can be put into place quickly to improve the lives of Canadians. Additional details on the application process will be available soon.
Catherine McKenna said: “The Canada Healthy Communities Initiative will help breathe life into these small projects that can have a big impact as local governments, Indigenous communities and their non-profit partners rethink public spaces and how they deliver services to people.
Whether it’s pop-up bike paths, community gardens, art installations, or Wi-Fi hot spots, Canadians want to work, play, and learn in safe and inclusive communities..”
• The funding for the Healthy Communities Initiative is being repurposed from existing funding for a second Smart Cities Challenge competition to support communities in dealing with the immediate and ongoing challenges posed by COVID-19. About $31 million of the remaining $170 million budget for this program has been redirected to the initiative. As this new initiative rolls out, we continue to work closely with all of the winners of the first Smart Cities Challenge as they take their winning proposals from concept to reality.
• The initiative will complement other measures being taken by Ottawa and other orders of government by supporting projects that have clear benefits to local communities but limited opportunities for funding under other programs.
• A new COVID-19 Resilience Stream has been added to the over $33-billion Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program to help fund pandemic-resilient infrastructure.