Internacional (Marketwired, 27 de Agosto de 2013) The Honourable Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources Canada, and Raymond Louie, Second Vice President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), President of the Green Municipal Fund (GMF) and a Vancouver, BC, city councillor, today announced a Green Municipal Fund™ grant for the City of Beaconsfield. The city will use the $113,850 in funding for a waste reduction pilot project to encourage residents to take control of their waste."The Harper Government is assisting municipalities across the country in achieving their goal of a cleaner and healthier environment for Canadians through the Green Municipal Fund," said Mr. Oliver. "The funding announced today will facilitate the involvement of the Beaconsfield community in domestic composting and will serve as a sustainable development model for other municipalities. It is another example of how our government – in partnership with FCM – is helping Beaconsfield build a greener future for their citizens."
To reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill, the City of Beaconsfield has undertaken an incentive-based pilot project combined with an extensive home composting campaign to encourage participation. The pilot project will supply 5% of the city's 6,000 residents with tools to facilitate home composting and measure how much waste they set out at the curb to assess their requirements for the second project phase.
"The Green Municipal Fund offers a range of resources and services that specifically address the sustainable community development needs of municipal governments like Beaconsfield and their citizens," said Mr. Louie. "The financing and knowledge provided by the Fund supports the development of communities that are more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable."
During the first phase of the pilot project, already in progress, participants are guided by an environmental firm and by volunteers who have been trained as Master Composters. In the second phase, scheduled for November, the participants will choose a bin sized for the volume of waste they produce and a new system for promoting reduction at source will be tested. The pilot project will run more than 12 months and upon completion, the possibility of expanding composting and participation to the entire city will be reviewed. The lessons learned from the Beaconsfield pilot project will be shared with other municipalities.
Beaconsfield city councillor Wade Staddon stated "As Chair of the Beaconsfield Environmental Advisory Committee (BEAC), I am grateful to the FCM and the federal government for supporting this opportunity, and extremely proud of the BEAC as well as the city's Council and Administration for the hard work that has gone into this project, which has been received with enthusiasm by the majority of involved residents. It is an excellent example of how citizens and government can work together to have a positive environmental impact."
The Government of Canada endowed the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) with $550 million to establish the Green Municipal FundÔ. The Fund supports partnerships and leveraging of both public and private-sector funding to reach higher standards of air, water and soil quality, and climate protection.
FCM has been the national voice of municipal governments since 1901. It fosters the development of sustainable communities to improve quality of life by promoting strong, effective, and accountable municipal government.
Contact Information
City of Beaconsfield
Wade Staddon
City Councillor, Chair of the Beaconsfield
Environmental Advisory Committee (BEAC)
wade.staddon@beaconsfield.ca
www.beaconsfield.ca
Federation of Canadian Municipalities
Maurice Gingues, Media Relations Officer
Green Municipal Fund
613-907-6399
613-244-1515 (FAX)
mgingues@fcm.ca
www.fcm.ca/gmf
Natural Resources Canada
David Provencher
Press Secretary
Office of Canada's Minister of Natural Resources
613-996-2007
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