New Brunswick’s Environmental Trust Fund (ETF) will invest about $8.4 million in environmental projects through 2018 and 2019. This includes 227 community-based environmental initiatives worth more than $6.6 million, as well as almost $1.8 million in province-wide projects.
“The Environmental Trust Fund is an important mechanism for New Brunswick community groups, organizations, municipalities and institutions to implement projects that produce tangible, measurable benefits to the environment,” said Environment and Local Government Minister Serge Rousselle. “Your government is providing the necessary support for hundreds of local and provincewide projects that help us protect the environment, raise awareness, innovate and address climate change.”
The ETF support programs that address academic studies of flood trend characteristics, develop climate change strategies, protecting provincial waterways from the impacts of climate change, and green infrastructure development. While water-related projects appear in a variety of funding categories, over $500,000 will specifically targeted at water quality and water and wastewater projects.
“The Environmental Trust Fund provides a timely injection of funding that creates an estimated 120 jobs each year for university students, seasonal workers, and full-time employees,” said deputy premier Stephen Horsman. “Here in the Fredericton region, 48 interesting projects will receive close to $1.5 million, with part of that going directly to hire many young New Brunswickers.”
The 2018–19 Environmental Trust Fund priority action areas are:
- protecting the environment;
- increasing environmental awareness;
- managing waste;
- addressing climate change; and
- building sustainable communities.
More information, including the list of approved projects and initiatives, is available on the Department of Environment and Local Government’s website.
