What you need to know about the FCM Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation Initiative

Municipalities and communities are on the front lines of extreme weather and climate change, where the impacts can be significant on infrastructure and services, and there is a strong need for adaptation. Under the Government of Canada’s Adaptation Action Plan, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) is administering a $530 Million Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation (LLCA) initiative through their Green Municipal Fund to support municipal adaptation measures (e.g., addressing flood risk, or excessive heat) and help communities adapt to climate change. Through collaboration with local governments, this initiative will support adaptation planning, capacity building, implementation, and financing, to help municipalities and their partners build long-term, resilient infrastructure. It is anticipated that the initiative will fund more than 1,400 municipal activities by 2031.

The LLCA initiative is intended to bring real, tangible benefits to municipalities and communities. The initial funding round is essentially made up of three funding streams:

Capacity development partner grants:

Primarily focused on internal municipal activities, external support can be provided through the development of training programs.

Feasibility studies up to $70,000:

Feasibility studies should assess the viability of a climate adaptation project with expected eligible costs of up to $1 Million, that improves municipal readiness for climate events. These projects should be aligned with a priority risk in the community’s climate risk assessment or is a priority action in their community’s climate adaptation plan. Implementation projects are intended for communities who are already aware of their climate risks and know which projects will help them make the greatest strides in improving their climate resilience. These projects can be for a new or subsequent phase of a climate adaptation project (not retroactive) and is capable of completion within three years from the date of grant approval.

Implementation projects, up to $1 million:

Regarding implementation studies, there is a long list of potential climate adaptation projects that provide low-carbon and nature-positive community benefits including:

FireSmart-aligned vegetative management or vegetation-based wildfire risk mitigation activities;
Installing, retrofitting or upgrading structural flood protection or stormwater collection works; (e.g., sponge parks, flood conveyance works, pump stations, flood walls, flood boxes, debris catchment structures, jetties, detention ponds);
Dam, dike or channel decommissioning and floodplain restoration;
Wetland restoration or construction;
Rehabilitating important aquifer recharge areas;
Installing, retrofitting or upgrading green infrastructure (e.g., rain gardens, bioswales, green roofs and/or permeable pavement);
Shoreline rehabilitation, including restoring natural shoreline protection through natural infrastructure, beach nourishment and/or bank stabilization; and
Slope stabilization projects that reduce the risk of debris flow, particularly in fire-impacted areas.

How can Matrix Solutions support?

Our teams are excited to work with municipalities through this important initiative. Let’s start a conversation about how we can support your efforts to improve community well-being, strengthen and protect ecosystems/natural assets, and increase the resilience of physical assets/municipal services to climate variability and change.

Matrix Solutions, a Montrose Environmental company, is well positioned to support municipalities in each of the funding streams, including services such as:

Developing and delivering adaptation training for local governments;
Supporting the preparation of feasibility studies;
Being engaged by municipalities to design and implement new infrastructure projects that incorporate nature-positive adaptation;
Feasibility studies of wetlands restoration, riparian buffers, urban forests, green roofs and walls; and
Floodplain restoration.

Application information and additional resources on LLCA initiative:

Applicants eligible for funding include:

Canadian municipal government;
Municipally owned corporation;
Regional, provincial or territorial organizations delivering municipal services; and
If a partnership is in place with a Canadian municipality, Indigenous community, Not-for-profit or NGOs.

Municipalities are eligible to apply for feasibility studies and implementation projects if they have completed climate adaptation plans and/or risk assessments, and many communities have done so across Ontario and the Prairies. The portfolio of projects led by the climate risk and resilience practice at Matrix includes the Climate Adaptation Plan for the City of Guelph, which recently received the OWWA/WEAO Climate Change Committee’s climate action award, and a Climate Risk Assessment of Natural Resources and Ecosystems for Conservation Halton.

Application Deadlines and Resources:

August 7, 2024: Applications for capacity development partner grants
August 14, 2024: Feasibility studies and implementation projects
Fall 2024: Funding for supporting the integration of equitable and inclusive climate resilience into municipal plans, processes, and management systems including asset management
February 2025: Funding that supports feasibility studies and implementation projects
Spring 2025: Funding for financing climate adaptation capital projects
Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation
Application Guide – Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation