The province says it’s accepting applications from municipalities for funding to clean up environmentally impacted sites that have been abandoned.
The money is coming from the Impacted Sites Fund.
The Ministry of Environment hands out the funds to municipal governments to clean up sites so they can be used for future economic or social development opportunities.
The sites include former gas stations or laundromats that are contaminated.
“In addition to the obvious environmental and human health benefits of cleaning up contaminated sites, the Impacted Sites Fund will allow communities to use those sites for other, economically beneficial purposes,” Environment Minister Dustin Duncan said in a news release.
The funds are collected through fines under the Environmental Management and Protection Act. There is currently around $178,000 available in the fund, the province says.
Applications will be ranked by the ministry based on environmental, social and economic factors, with first priority given to sites posing the largest risk to human or ecological health.
