BC Community Climate Funding Guide

The original fleet of electric SkyTrain cars is still running smoothly, thanks in large part to the Canada Community-Building Fund. Through one of the fund’s three streams – the Greater Vancouver Regional Fund – TransLink has received almost $2 billion to date for everything from new buses to constructing the new Marpole electric-bus transit centre. Most recently, funding allowed for the refurbishment of 144 Mark 1 SkyTrain cars dating from the 1980s and 90s, each of which has run, on average, more than 3.2 million kilometres to date. Now, with funding from the Canada Community-Building Fund, they’ll be a part of the region’s clean transportation future for years to come.

A $500,000 grant from Forestry Innovation Investment’s Mass Timber Demonstration Program is helping build one of the first zero-emissions mass timber buildings in Canada. The District of Saanich’s new fire station – slated for completion in 2023 – will feature a steel and timber post-and-beam system with a cross-laminated timber roof, all topped off with solar panels. The station will showcase innovative uses of B.C. wood and serve as a template for how mass timber can be used in a building designed to withstand emergencies – all while meeting ambitious environmental targets.

A fully-electric vehicle has replaced a gas-guzzling security van in the Coquitlam School District’s fleet, thanks to funding provided through the CleanBC Go Electric program. Emissions from the fleet are one of the main contributors to the School District’s carbon footprint and the van – the most-used vehicle in the fleet – was a major source of those emissions. Driven more than 200 kilometres each day and using 7,700 litres of gas each year, it produced more than 18,300 kilograms of greenhouse gases annually. The new electric vehicle runs completely on B.C.’s clean electricity, charges quickly and efficiently, and can travel 260 kilometres on a single charge.

Thanks to the largest infrastructure grant the community has ever received, the Town of Golden has massively boosted its resilience to climate change. The $5.9 million provided by the Canada Community-Building Fund through the UBCM Community Works Fund allowed Golden to take on the Kicking Horse River Dike Improvement Project, constructing a flood protection wall along the river and heightening dikes throughout the town to protect against rising water levels. 

Spurred on by a $100,000 grant from the CleanBC Building Innovation Fund, the City of Fort St. John is constructing a new net-zero-ready home for the community’s RCMP detachment. The building will use significantly less energy than the current station and bring substantial cost savings and emissions reductions to the community. It features locally sourced mass timber, a solar-ready roof, energy-efficient HVAC systems and a thermal performance-maximizing envelope.