New funding categories to offer more flexibility to small communities

Improvements to the Small Communities Fund will help Quebec municipalities offer better services to families, particularly in  the areas of cultural, recreational and tourism. Infrastructure investments made as a result of this agreement will help improve the quality of life of our middle class and create healthy communities for our children.

Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Land Occupancy, Minister of Public Security and Minister responsible for the Montréal region, Martin Coiteux, confirmed today the addition of new eligible project categories for the Small Communities Fund. Also present at the announcement were Member for Beauce-Sud, Paul Busque, President of the Quebec Federation for Municipalities and  Mayor of Saint-Elzéar, Richard Lehoux, and First Vice-President of the Quebec Union of Municipalities and Mayor of Drummondville, Alexandre Cusson.

The new project categories include, among others, cultural, recreational and tourism infrastructure. Concretely, this means that projects including new constructions, expansions or rehabilitations of existing infrastructure such as arenas, museums, community centres or interpretation centres will now be eligible.

The addition of these categories, included in the New Building Canada-Quebec Agreement originally signed on May 22, 2015, is specific to the Small Communities Fund. Under this Fund the federal government has allocated $176.95 million to Quebec for the years 2014-2015 to 2023-2024. These amendments also aim to provide Quebec municipalities with more flexibility.

“Today’s agreement demonstrates Canada’s commitment to working closely with Quebec to meet the unique needs of small communities across the province. By offering flexible funding for a wider range of infrastructure projects, Canadian communities will benefit from investments that promote sustainable development while ensuring long-term economic prosperity. Municipalities know best what their communities need, and those insights are integral to building the Canada of the 21st century,” said Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities.

The deadline for submitting projects for one of these categories is March 31, 2018. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Land Occupancy will receive all of the funding requests from municipalities. The Ministry will, however, delegate the implementation of some terms of the program to other departments of the Government of Quebec.

About the Small Communities Fund

The Small Communities Fund aims to help maintain infrastructure in small municipalities and equip those municipalities to meet existing regulation. The fund is supported by the Government of Canada and the Government of Quebec.