Municipalities, non-profit groups, and other organizations across Windsor-Essex can apply for money to help with climate adaptation efforts.
Windsor-Tecumseh Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk says that the federal government's Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation Fund is now accepting applications until August 14, 2024.
The $530-million fund is designed to speed up adaptation support for resilient municipal infrastructure.
Kusmierczyk made the announcement Friday outside the St. Paul Pumping Station on Riverside Drive East in Windsor.
Windsor-Tecumseh Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk says this is to help cities and towns become more resilient to climate change from things like floods and forest fires.
"Last year, we saw over 17 million hectares of forest go up in flames in Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, and New Brunswick, and we saw the impact of that here as well. We saw the smoke that basically filled our community, and when you stepped outside your doors, you tasted it, you felt it; that thick smoke was coming here," he says.
Kusmierczyk says he'd love to see all the local municipalities go after this funding.
"Projects can include anything from modernizing and strengthening pumping stations like St. Paul to water treatment stations. It can go into rain infrastructure; I'm thinking about rain gardens and roof-top gardens," he says. "It can go into planting forests, planting trees, reforestation, and naturalization. So there's tremendous opportunity"
The City of Windsor has been planning to move Sandpoint Beach further away from a dangerous current in Lake St. Clair at the western end of the beach as part of a plan to remake the public space, but designs are not expected to go to council for consideration until 2025.
Kusmierczyk says he hopes the City of Windsor applies for the funding to use for improvements at Sandpoint Beach.
"Here's an opportunity to perhaps get the first phase of the Sandpoint relocation and improvements completed with this funding that can provide naturalization of corridors that can provide soil erosion, shoreline protection, and flood protection at Sandpoint and move that project forward," he says.
Under the program, there are three funding streams providing climate adaptation support for municipalities. Besides climate adaptation planning, municipalities can also apply for up to $1 million for implementation and up to $70,000 for feasibility studies.
Communities with climate adaptation plans or risk assessments are eligible.