FCM’s Green Municipal Fund (GMF) is getting its own website to better serve your sustainability needs. Over the past two years, GMF has seen significant growth and demand for our funding and resources. We’re proud to offer a new central destination to access GMF learning content, apply for GMF funding and learn about the impact GMF is making from coast to coast to coast. This information hub will enable FCM and GMF to keep working directly with municipalities to help them switch to sustainable practices faster than ever.
What will be different about the new site?
GMF’s new site will offer easy ways to find funding, engage with our learning content and celebrate the successes of the municipalities who deliver on GMF-funded projects. We’re excited for you to explore a few key areas:
Find funding for your project, faster and easier than ever.
Self-assess with a few short questions to discover GMF funding that could fit your project. Receive personalized recommendations for project funding in only a few minutes. Then, easily connect with GMF staff to take the next step.
Take advantage of our streamlined funding library to find the right funding for your community.
Discover valuable resources that can jump-start your sustainability journey.
Our new Learning Centre is a hub of useful information. Access technical experts, self-paced learning and like-minded peers. Find relevant guides and tools with a few clicks, then attend online and in-person events to network, learn and connect with industry experts.
See what other municipalities are doing—and how you can replicate their successes.
Get inspired by more than 200 case studies showing best practices and lessons learned. Learn from other projects like yours. See what other municipalities are doing in your region or across Canada. Then, jump straight into relevant resources and funding to help you follow in the footsteps of their successes.
How will I access the new site?
Simply visit greenmunicipalfund.ca to access everything GMF has to offer. You’ll also be able to go to the site through FCM.ca by clicking GMF-related links in the main menu. GMF funding and resources will still be available in FCM libraries, but searching through greenmunicipalfund.ca will offer an experience that’s optimized for GMF content.
When will the new site launch?
You’ll be able to explore greenmunicipalfund.ca in Summer 2022.
Case Study: Regina takes steps to revitalize and grow city core
A new strategy to improve underutilized land is helping this prairie capital work toward a denser, more sustainable urban environment.
of land in the city centre planned for revitalization
80%
of immediate and short-term actions completed or in progress
Summary
When Regina created its official community plan, it set a goal to maintain the city’s compact nature and increase density in the core. City staff knew one way to reach this goal was to make use of vacant land in established areas of the city, but it was unclear how much of this land existed and why it wasn’t being developed. To this end, the city commissioned a project to determine how to foster opportunities for redevelopment on underutilized sites while supporting broader community priorities. The resulting study and strategy outline barriers to development and corresponding actions that will help Regina meet its sustainability and community goals over the next 10 years.
Background
Regina’s population of about 225,000 people is spread across approximately 180 square kilometres of south-central Saskatchewan, in an open prairie landscape that is conducive to sprawl. In 2013, in response to past growth and in anticipation of an additional population increase of 100,000 within 25 years, Regina released its Official community plan (OCP). One major priority of the OCP was to maintain the city’s compact nature—most Regina residents live within a 15-minute drive of downtown—and to increase density, with a target of at least 30 percent of new population growth occurring within established areas of the city. Community priorities outlined in the OCP include:
Develop complete neighbourhoods
Support the availability of diverse housing options
Achieve long-term financial viability
Foster economic prosperity
The challenge
The OCP identified development on underutilized land in the city core as an opportunity to help meet density and community goals. The land in question includes brownfields, bluefields (unused institutional sites), surface parking lots and other vacant sites. However, there was no clear understanding of how much of this land was available, or of what barriers might be preventing development of such sites.
Approach
To gain a clearer understanding of how best to take advantage of Regina’s underutilized land base, the city commissioned a two-part planning project.
Part one was an Underutilized Land Study that explored the regulatory, environmental and economic barriers to development of vacant land, as well as creating a vacant lot inventory. The Study also included ideas and recommendations to address these barriers.
Part two of the project entailed building on the Study to develop an Underutilized Land Improvement Strategy (ULIS). The purpose of the ULIS was to outline what the City of Regina needs to do with regards to underutilized land to meet the community’s sustainability goals and to address barriers expressed by the development industry.
The Strategy includes five goals:
Rules: Ensure that regulatory frameworks such as zoning support redevelopment of vacant land.
Process: Ensure that information for redevelopment applications is easy to access and has a clear path to action.
Financial: Support redevelopment of underutilized land through strategic public investment.
Promotion: Foster collaboration, and communicate about redevelopment opportunities and the reasoning behind them.
Monitoring: Track progress and refine the Strategy as needed.
Parking lot in Regina, Saskatchewan identified as part of their new land use strategy
Results
The Framework for Action put into place by the ULIS outlines various tasks, guidelines and projects that staff are to undertake to move development forward on underutilized land in alignment with community. For example, the Framework includes:
Investing along with provincial and federal governments in the Railyard Renewal Project, a revitalization plan for a 17.5-acre piece of land in the City Centre.
Creating an updated, simplified zoning bylaw to align with the OCP and intensification goals, by allowing two-unit buildings in low-density zones and making it easier to redevelop and repurpose existing buildings.
The new bylaw went into effect in December 2019. In January 2020, the Housing Incentive Policy was revised, with amendments including expansion of a capital grant program for new affordable rental construction.
Benefits
Environmental, economic and social benefits are woven throughout Regina’s Framework for Action. For example, a number of tasks are geared toward:
Making it easier and more attractive to clean up contaminated sites for redevelopment
Supporting the creation of affordable housing
Improving transit and other neighbourhood amenities
Many tasks in the Framework for Action are already ongoing, including infrastructure upgrades such as the Dewdney Avenue Corridor Rehabilitation Project. This project includes improvements to both underground and aboveground infrastructure, with the goal of transforming this route into what the city calls “a desirable landscaped roadway” complete with a sidewalk and potential bike lane buffered from traffic by street trees.
Lessons learned
Some lessons learned as a result of this project include:
The two-step process of completing a study before moving into the strategy phase was beneficial, as it helped generate interest and build support.
Having members from various departments as part of the steering committee was helpful for working through diverse feedback from a variety of stakeholders.
The streamlined approach of focusing on solidifying the framework rather than getting stuck in the details of each action was key to completing the Strategy in a timely manner.
Stakeholder perspectives on the most important barriers to development shifted through the project timeline. Initially, processes were seen as high priority, while later, costs became the focus. It could be beneficial to find better ways to zero in on stakeholder concerns earlier in the process.
Next steps
More than 80 percent of immediate and short-term actions from the Framework have been completed or are in progress. This includes the new Zoning Bylaw and updated Housing Incentive Policy and improved Building Permit and Inspections Review processing times of 10 days for residential permits and 20 days for commercial. The next step is to look at ways to streamline processes for redevelopment and infill projects specifically and to implement medium- and long-term strategic actions.
Want to explore all GMF-funded projects? Check out the Projects Database for a complete overview of funded projects and get inspired by municipalities of all sizes, across Canada.
Transitioning your community buildings – like pools and indoor ice rinks – to net-zero facilities can deliver significant reductions in energy consumption, utility costs and local GHG emissions. There are plenty of improvement measures that can be implemented but it’s not always clear where to start and how to choose what will have the greatest impact in your municipality.
This introductory webinar is for municipal staff and elected officials considering energy upgrades for community buildings. Learn from other municipalities that have successfully tackled retrofits of local facilities and hear how staff thought through the different options to reach their project decisions.
What you will learn:
How to transition local rinks and facilities to net-zero over time
How to advance a net-zero project, including the creation of a strong business case and improving stakeholder engagement
What to consider in each stage of a retrofit project
How to choose the best options for your community
Webinar benefits:
Determine what funding options are available and which may be right for your community building retrofit
Review successful examples of municipalities with completed community building retrofit upgrades
Understand how your facility goals can fit into your communities’ climate action plans
Gain direct access to a GMF advisor for your specific questions
Speakers:
Michael Dean, Senior Climate Change & Energy Planner, Town of Halton Hills
Rachel Mitchell, Climate Change and Sustainability Manager, Town of New Glasgow
Are you looking for tools and resources to help guide your community facility upgrade project? Our Community Buildings Retrofit (CBR) initiative supports municipalities in retrofitting local recreation and cultural buildings to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, extend your asset’s lifecycle and improve quality of life for residents. From guidebooks to case studies, this resource library provides practical information and guidance as you undertake local facility retrofit projects in your community.
Learn more about:
Retrofit strategies and lessons learned for achieving significant energy reductions in your community facilities
Building recommissioning and planning local retrofit priorities
Data-backed tips and tools for building performance assessments in energy renewal and efficiency
Key considerations and steps to start your own upgrade project
And much more
We’ll continue to update this page with additional resources as they become available.
Please note, all files appear in the language in which they were provided.
Stage 1: Understanding your building’s performance
