The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has released its annual report highlighting the positive environmental impacts the Green Municipal Fund has achieved in communities across the country.
Areas, where the GMF has demonstrated return on investment, include spurring innovation in water and wastewater infrastructure assets, bolstering unique funding models for infrastructure investment, increasing capacity building for asset management, and developing natural infrastructure to increase climate resilience.
In the water and wastewater section of the report, the FCM highlights “Key Result Area 2: Enabling innovation and replication,” and the impacts of investments made in the Region of Waterloo. In Waterloo Region, the GMF is expected to achieve a reduction in electricity consumption by up to 80 per cent; 1,180 GHG reductions annually at project completion in 2024; and $16.6 million cost reductions during the project’s life cycle.
“What I like about this project is how it integrates long-term sustainability into a basic community service that citizens use every day,” says Tony Maas, a ratepayer in the region and director of the Forum for Leadership on Water (FLOW), an independent research and policy group. “The project will help the region reach its 2019 target of reducing GHG emissions by 10 per cent below 2009 levels. And the [Region of Waterloo] can invest the savings generated by the project into other sustainability initiatives.”
The report also highlights knowledge resources and training opportunities provided by the GMF, such as the Leadership in Asset Management Program (LAMP), a peer-learning initiative to enable participants to share best practices and develop solutions to local challenges.
Justine Fecteau-Fortin, a municipal director of sustainable development who is quoted in the report said, “LAMP helps us to raise awareness of how we can overcome the poor planning decisions made in the past. Asset management is really about leaving a better legacy for future generations.”
“Key Result Area 5: Responding to different client groups” highlighted how the Town of Wainwright, Alta invested in aqueducts and wetlands to improve its stormwater management.
The FCM Green Municipal Fund 2017–2018 Annual Report is available on the FCM website.
