Assessments to choose organic-waste energy systems
Grants up to CAD 100,000 for Canadian municipalities and their partners to compare ways of producing energy from organic waste and choose viable options.
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Prepare a business case: compare available systems and ways to own, operate and finance them for a particular site, waste supply, or both. Identify preferred options, estimate costs and potential income, assess possible partners, risks and environmental, social and economic effects, and evaluate the municipality’s economic benefit compared with handling the waste another way. Eligible work includes assessing sites, local waste supplies, technology providers, markets for energy and other products, legal requirements and your organization’s ability to deliver the project.
The grant normally covers up to 50% of eligible costs, capped at CAD 100,000 for the business case. Up to 80% may be available for municipalities of 10,000 people or fewer and their partners; regional governments or municipal groups whose member municipalities average 10,000 people or fewer; eligible Indigenous communities; or Northern communities. Northern or eligible Indigenous communities applying to GMF for the first time may qualify for up to 100%. The North comprises the three territories and Statistics Canada’s designated northern parts of seven provinces, as defined on the official offer page.
The business case prepares you for a feasibility study, which examines the preferred technology options in detail. You can undertake both stages together under one project with a grant cap of CAD 200,000 for the combined work.
Eligibility
Canadian municipalities can apply. Private companies, municipal corporations, regional/provincial/territorial organizations delivering municipal services, nonprofits, NGOs and research institutes may apply as municipal partners. An Indigenous community can lead through a partnership with a Canadian municipality or a shared-service agreement with one concerning municipal infrastructure, climate change or adaptation.
Explore at least one eligible energy route: purifying landfill gas into fuel or using it directly for energy; anaerobic digestion of local organic waste, where microorganisms break it down without oxygen to produce gas; or recovering heat from wastewater, landfill sites or composting. Inputs can include food and garden waste, biosolids (solid residues from wastewater treatment), and organic packaging or agricultural waste.
The proposed project must both reduce greenhouse-gas emissions overall and improve its net energy result compared with the current situation used as its baseline. Account for energy consumed as well as energy generated or recovered in that comparison.
Your business case must include a life-cycle assessment or a life-cycle inventory of the proposed waste inputs. An assessment examines environmental impacts over the material’s life; an inventory records resource inputs such as materials, energy and water, and emissions from the process. Compare the environmental impacts of using the waste in the proposed energy system with those of its current management. Confirm sufficient, reliable supply quantity and quality through the seasons of an operating year and throughout the facility’s planned life. ISO 14040, ISO 14044 and the ILCD handbook are optional guidance, not mandatory methods.
The required equity assessment must specifically examine people and groups facing systemic barriers or exclusion. Identify who may benefit most and/or bear burdens, directly or indirectly, the positive and negative effects on them, measures to address barriers or reduce adverse impacts, and local data, reports or maps that explain those effects. This assessment is mandatory; the broader preference for projects incorporating measures such as inclusive engagement, anti-racism and reconciliation is separate. The work should identify partnership opportunities and recommend ownership, operation and financing arrangements; it need not assume a system has already been selected.
How to apply
- Status
- Løpende søknader
- Vilkår for søknadsrunden
- Year-round subject to available funds; approval may be deferred to the next fiscal year. Business case alone: CAD 100,000 cap. Combined business case and feasibility study: CAD 200,000 for both stages.
Applications are accepted year-round until funds are allocated; GMF may defer approval to the next fiscal year, beginning 1 April. Discuss your project at gmfinfo@fcm.ca or 1-877-417-0550, create a profile in the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) funding portal and submit a pre-application. If invited, submit the full application, workbook and required documents. Invitation does not guarantee funding; consultants cannot sign or submit on the applicant’s behalf.
Provide municipal support, a team chart and résumés, and letters for confirmed funding. A nonmunicipal lead needs a municipal contact, a partnership resolution attached to the pre-application, incorporation documents and support from its chief executive or chief financial officer. Municipal corporations must show their municipal relationship and mandate. Indigenous applicants provide a partnership resolution or the relevant shared-service agreement, according to their route. Funding may be unconfirmed at submission, but all sources must be confirmed before the first payment.
Quebec municipalities and municipal corporations must obtain MAMH approval of their pre-application. Use the ministère des Affaires municipales et de l’Habitation’s municipal portal; it checks compliance and forwards approved applications to GMF.
Business-case costs generally qualify only after GMF receives the full application. Up to CAD 5,000 for writing the application within 90 days before submitting it may qualify. Expenses must be reasonable, essential and invoiced to the applicant. Follow the cost table’s expense-statement and external-audit requirements, and retain records for seven years after final payment. Payment documents include the completed business case or combined business case and study, final completion report, workbook with expense claim and confirmed funding sources, and payment request. Progress reports apply for multiple payments or when requested.