Municipalities in Canada spend a significant amount of their budgets maintaining aging community and cultural buildings—such as arenas, pools, libraries and recreation centers. These spaces are vital not only to residents’ well-being but also to our communities’ local pride and culture.  

With GMF’s Community Buildings Retrofit (CBR) initiative, municipalities and their partners can afford to modernize these vital buildings. Upgrades can reduce energy consumption, lower maintenance costs, create local jobs, and enhance the buildings’ comfort and services—while helping municipalities meet their climate goals.  

Whether you’re in the early stages of planning or are ready to implement energy upgrades, CBR provides the flexibility to support you at every stage of the process. With tailored funding and resources, CBR will help you make upgrades that are both impactful and sustainable for years to come. 

FCM’s Community Buildings Retrofit initiative is delivered through our Green Municipal Fund and funded by the Government of Canada.

These guides outline everything you need to know about applying for GMF funding. Each GMF funding initiative has a dedicated application guide. Find the appropriate guide below for your funding application submission. Then, check out our sample letters for suggestions on how to reach out to your provincial or territorial government and provide details on funding sources in your GMF funding application.

Sustainable Municipal Buildings 

This guide outlines everything you should know about applying for GMF funding under the Sustainable Municipal Buildings offer. It contains application instructions, information about how your project will be evaluated and tips for completing a successful application.

Read the guide

Community Energy Systems 

This guide outlines everything you should know about applying for GMF funding under the Community Energy Systems offer. It contains application instructions, information about how your project will be evaluated and tips for completing a successful application. 

Read the guide

Municipal Fleet Electrification

This guide outlines everything you should know about applying for GMF funding under the Municipal Fleet Electrification offer. It contains application instructions, information about how your project will be evaluated and tips for completing a successful application.

Read the guide

Organic Waste-to-Energy  

This guide outlines everything you should know about applying for GMF funding under the Organic Waste-to-Energy offer. It contains application instructions, information about how your project will be evaluated and tips for completing a successful application. 

Read the guide

Net-Zero Transformation 

This guide outlines everything you should know about applying for GMF funding under the Net-Zero Transformation offer. It contains application instructions, information about how your project will be evaluated and tips for completing a successful application.

Read the guide

Community Efficiency Financing

This guide outlines everything you need to know about applying for GMF’s Community Efficiency Financing (CEF) funding, a $300 million initiative that helps municipalities deliver energy financing programs for low-rise residential properties. The guide contains detailed application instructions, including forms, eligible programs, required supporting documents, and the stages of application assessment and evaluation criteria.

Read the CEF application guide

Sustainable Affordable Housing

This document outlines everything you should know about applying for GMF’s Sustainable Affordable Housing (SAH) funding, a $300 million initiative that offers support to local affordable housing providers – including municipal, not-for-profit organizations and housing co-ops – to retrofit existing affordable housing units, or construct energy efficient new builds that emit lower GHG emissions. The guide contains detailed application instructions, including forms, project eligibility, required energy and affordability thresholds, and the stages of application assessment and evaluation criteria.

Read the SAH application guide

Community Buildings Retrofit

This guide outlines everything you need to know about applying for CBR funding, an initiative that supports local governments and not-for-profit organizations in retrofitting public buildings to improve energy performance, lower operating and maintenance costs, and transition to cleaner energy solutions over time. The guide contains detailed application instructions, including forms, eligible projects, greenhouse gas emissions reduction requirements, required supporting documents, and the stages of application assessment and eligibility criteria.

Read the CBR application guide

Tree planting funding

This guide outlines everything you should know about applying for GMF’s Tree planting funding, offered through GMF’s Growing Canada’s Community Canopies (GCCC) initiative. Developed with small, rural, and remote communities in mind, tree planting funding will support the accessible, ambitious, resilient, and equitable expansion of community tree canopies. 

The guide contains detailed application instructions, including details of the funding and how your application will be evaluated, glossary of key terms, summary of required supporting documents, and templates for council resolution. 

Funding available: starting Spring/Summer 2025.

Adaptation funding

This guide details the application approach for Adaptation in Action feasibility studies and implementation projects, offered through GMF’s Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation initiative. This funding supports municipal projects that deliver immediate reductions in the risks posed by climate change impacts, with a particular emphasis on supporting equity-deserving and marginalized communities.   

The guide contains detailed application instructions, including details of the funding and how your application will be evaluated, glossary of key terms, summary of required supporting documents, and templates for council resolution. 

Read the Adaptation in Action funding application guide.

 

Sample letter: confirming provincial/territorial government consultation

Consultation between the lead funding applicant and the government of the province or territory in which the project is located is a requirement when applying for GMF funding, except for municipal governments in Quebec. Use this sample letter template to reach out to your provincial or territorial government and include it in your funding application as proof that the consultation has taken place. 

Read the sample letter template

Sample letter: attestation for flood exposure

Use this sample letter to certify that your new infrastructure asset is built outside the current 100-year floodplain of the most recent floodplain map and/or is protected by permanent structural defenses such as a berm, dike or levee, designed to mitigate flood damage during 100-year or greater flood return interval events. This is required in applications to funding under the Sustainable Municipal Buildings, Community Energy Systems, Municipal Fleet Electrification, Organic Waste-to-Energy and Net-Zero Transformation offers.  

Read the sample letter template 

 

Sample: template for council resolution

Use this template to format a council resolution to include in your application to funding under the Sustainable Municipal Buildings, Community Energy Systems, Municipal Fleet Electrification, Organic Waste-to-Energy and Net-Zero Transformation offers.   

Read the template 

 

Sample letter: confirming project funding sources 

Each organization contributing to a GMF-funded project, including the lead municipality, must submit a letter confirming specific contributions to the project. Use this sample letter template when providing details on funding sources in your GMF funding application. 

Read the sample letter template

Our purpose

GMF exists to enhance the quality of life for people in Canada by accelerating a transformation to sustainable and resilient communities. It does this by providing grants, loans, innovative financing, leveraged investments, capacity building, and strategic support.

Our vision

The GMF vision is that Canadian municipalities lead the way to achieving Canada’s sustainability targets. GMF aims to be the go-to resource and partner for municipalities in Canada that are accelerating their transformation to sustainable, resilient communities. GMF drives municipal progress using solutions that address wider outcomes across subsectors. It is committed to the principles of anti-racism, equity, inclusion, and reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.

Ultimate goals

To achieve its vision, GMF has set “ultimate goals” for the next 10 years:

1. Municipalities can access innovative, technically, and economically viable solutions to their climate mitigation, adaptation, and sustainability challenges.
2. Municipalities have climate change mitigation and adaptation plans, and they and their partners have the capacity, knowledge, decision-making tools, and support to scale up the implementation of sustainable, resilient, net-zero solutions.
3. Municipalities can access the capital they need to invest in or fund sustainable, resilient, net-zero solutions.
4. GMF has the means, resources, and partner support to lead the transition to sustainable, resilient, net-zero Canadian communities.

Sub-sector strategies for change

To achieve our vision, GMF has set “ultimate goals” for the next 10 years:

Energy

All buildings achieve net-zero status and are resilient in the face of a changing climate. Innovative financing mechanisms, fuel switching, energy efficiency, and renewable energy production have accelerated net-zero new builds and retrofits to provide people with healthy, safe, and affordable spaces. Buildings are connected to resilient, net-zero energy supply systems for their thermal and electrical needs, mitigate their impact on supply systems, and even support these energy supply systems.

Transportation

Municipalities achieve net-zero transportation emissions by prioritizing demand management, affordable and accessible transit, and active transportation. Zero-emission vehicles enable the remaining movement of goods, services, and people. Transportation investments incorporate adaptive actions to ensure infrastructure and equipment resilience.

Land Use

Local governments foster the development of resilient, net-zero, inclusive, and complete communities. They prioritize compact growth that supports sustainable mobility, provides diverse housing and amenities, reduces infrastructure and service costs, enables improvements in community energy use, and uses previously developed land whenever possible. Local governments also protect and deploy natural assets to capture carbon, increase biodiversity, and enhance liveability and climate resilience.

Circular economy

In a circular, net-zero economy, municipalities deploy strategies and incentives to ensure that products and materials stay in use in the community at their highest possible value and are managed as resources. This helps eliminate waste and pollution. Resource management infrastructure and systems — such as collection, recovery centres, and existing landfills — are resilient and optimized to reduce GHG emissions and restore nature.

Water

In a circular, net-zero economy, all water is preserved and managed to maintain water quality and accessibility while minimizing the energy and material input needed for supply and use. Municipal water systems and infrastructure support community resiliency, and returned water supports natural systems’ regeneration.

Since GMF’s inception, we’ve achieved: