Mount Waddington, B.C. - This information was shared with the MWHN by Bridget Horel, Rural Development Unit Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
"One of the programs announced last week as part of B.C.’s StrongerBC Economic Recovery Plan was the Community Economic Recovery Infrastructure Program (CERIP).
A website for the new program has now launched: www.gov.bc.ca/CERIP. The website includes information and key documentation for the program.
Under the Community Economic Recovery Infrastructure Program (CERIP), the Province is committing up to $100 million to support community economic resilience, tourism, heritage, and urban and rural economic development projects. There are four streams (see table below). More details are on the CERIP website and in the funding guide:
Some things to note:
Application portal opens October 1, 2020 with a deadline of October 29, 2020 at 11:59 pm. Successful applicants will be contacted by early winter of 2020/21.
Max for each project is $1 million and this is for 100% funding
Can submit 2 applications – twice in the same stream or under different streams
Projects must start by December 31, 2021 and end by March 31, 2023.
Page 16 of the Applicant Guide has eligible and ineligible costs – note that staff costs are ineligible unless pre-approved (to a maximum of 15% of the total funding) by the Ministry responsible and specifically related to the project. Project Management fees are eligible.
Applicants will need to have a Business BCeID. If you do not have one already it can take several weeks to process so strongly encourage you get an ID as soon as possible. It has to be the Business level BCEID. You will also have to link this BCeID to the LGIS system (takes 24-48 hours). Recommend that you do these things early.
Familiarize yourself with KML files as you will have to submit one for the project location – (learn how to create a .KML file)
There is an applicant checklist that covers some of the items above.
Stream
Total Amount
Focus
Eligibility
Community Economic Resilience (CER)
$30 Million
funding stream is focused on short-term and small scale infrastructure projects
Local governments, Indigenous governments, Non-profits
Destination Development (DD)
$20 Million
funding stream is focused on projects that bring visitors back to B.C. communities
Local governments, Indigenous governments, Non-profits
Unique Heritage Infrastructure (UHI)
$20 Million
focused on projects that conserve, repair, rehabilitate or develop cultural heritage infrastructure
Local governments, Indigenous governments, Non-profits
** Indigenous applicants, seeking funding under the Unique Heritage Infrastructure stream are not required to apply through the LGIS and should apply through the First Peoples' Cultural Council's online grant portal, which will not require a Business BCeID.
Rural Economic Recovery
$20 Million
helping rural Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities accelerate their recovery from COVID-19 through community-led projects
Local governments, Indigenous governments, Non-profitsin communities with population of 25,000 or less.
**Rural – for the purposes of CERIP, rural is defined as a community with a population of 25,000 or less located outside of a major urban region.
The other $10 Million under CERIP is going to the Aboriginal Head Start program for outdoor play spaces to support land-based learning programs in Indigenous Communities.
As other information comes available, I will be sharing that out with you all as well. You can view the full plan in PDF format at https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/StrongerBC_BCs-Economic-Recovery-Report.pdf.
I recommend reading the backgrounders as they have some more specifics on the programs.
I am happy to chat with you about projects you are working on and funding streams."
All the best,
Bridget Horel
Regional Economic Operations Branch – Regional Manager North Vancouver Island/Sunshine Coast
Rural Development Unit
Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
370 Dogwood Street South, Campbell River, BC
Bridget.Horel@gov.bc.ca │250-850-1770 (Office) │ 250-202-8619 (Cell) │