EDMONTON – The Alberta government is pledging $125 million towards investment over the next five years for Alberta’s new drought and food protection plan.
The program is designed to “help vulnerable municipalities and Indigenous communities across the province develop the long-term infrastructure needed to improve their drought and flood resilience and adapt to severe weather,” a release said.
“Droughts and floods can devastate public infrastructure and private property, disrupt our economy, damage the environment and put lives at risk. The new Drought and Flood Protection Program would help communities across the province build the practical infrastructure they need to help protect people’s homes and keep businesses going, regardless of the weather,” Alberta Minister of Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schulz said in a statement.
The program would help fund design and construction of projects to protect critical infrastructure from flooding and drought, including projects to relocate or drought-proof critical infrastructure, improve drainage or water retention ponds, and stabilize riverbanks or construct flood barriers.
Projects eligible for funding under the program would include drought and flood proofing or relocation of critical infrastructure and infrastructure required to access those services; structural measures, such as berms, flood walls, bank protection and stabilization works; retention ponds and diversion structures; and bio-retention infrastructure designed to increase flood attenuation and reduce the impacts of drought.
Purchase of a property for relocation purposes or for access to and construction of a project is also covered under the program.
Municipalities, Metis settlements and First Nations would all be eligible to apply.
The program builds on the Alberta Community Resilience Program which ended in 2020, the release said.
More program details including eligibility requirements, application deadlines and cost-sharing components will be released once the program opens later in the year.
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