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Local Government Climate Action Program funding

Last updated on July 2, 2024

In Budget 2022, the Province provided $76 million over three years for the Local Government Climate Action Program (LGCAP). Funding is allocated to multiple criteria and used towards climate initiatives as outlined below.

Funding allocation

A series of criteria were applied to the allocation of funds to ensure an equitable, historically comparable, and consistent funding model. 

Total funding

A total of $23.886 million annually was allocated to local governments and Modern Treaty Nations under the LGCAP program.

Base funding

All eligible local governments and Modern Treaty Nations are assigned annual base funding of $38,082 each. Total allocated base funding represents approximately 30 percent of total funding.

Per capita allocations

The remaining 70 percent of the total annual funding was allocated using the COVID-19 Safe Restart Grant’s adjusted per capita population allocation methodology (PDF, 124KB). Population values from BC Stats for 2020, acquired in December 2021, were used as base populations. Below is the formula that was applied to adjust base populations. Regional district populations were determined based on their unincorporated areas population.

Population adjustments
Population range from Population range to Population adjustment factor Population adjustment percentage
0 2,000 3 300%
2,001 15,000 2 200%
15,001 25,000 1 100%
25,001 275,000 0.7 70%
275,001 3,000,000 0.5 50%

Example

For a city of 15,000 people, its adjusted population will be: 

  • For the first 2,000 residents, adjustment of 300 percent = 2,000 x 3 = 6,000
  • For the next 13,000 (between 2,000 and 15,000) people, adjustment of 200 percent = 13,000 x 2 = 26,000
  • Thus, the city of 15,000 people will have an adjusted population of 32,000 (6,000 + 26,000)

Regional districts

Regional districts are allocated $2 per capita multiplied by adjusted population and municipalities are allocated $3 per capita multiplied by adjusted population. Adjusted per capita funding is then rounded to the nearest thousand.

Revised funding

Through ongoing engagement with LGCAP participants, the Province heard the need for predictable and increased funding to support local climate action, as well as the need for enhanced guidance and technical resources. As a result, in March 2024, the Province allocated three years of funding to all LGCAP participants in one lump sum payment. By providing this funding, local governments and Modern Treaty Nations can plan and fund their climate action projects with more certainty. This up-front payment replaces the next three years of annual payments, meaning there are no planned LGCAP payments in fiscal years 2024-2025, 2025-2026, and 2026-2027. This allocation comes with flexibility as it can be utilized until March 31, 2028.

The total amount in the new lump sum payment was recalibrated in order for the Province to utilize funds for new supports for LGCAP, in particular, funding for continuation and expansion of regional climate action networks and development of new guidance materials.

Use of funding 

Funding must be used to achieve community and provincial climate objectives, aligned with the CleanBC Roadmap to 2030 (PDF, 9MB) and/or the Climate Preparedness and Adaptation Strategy (PDF, 7MB). 

Funding for climate initiatives

Climate initiatives are actions to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and/or adapt to a changing climate and mitigate climate-related risks. This can include, but is not limited to:  

  • Actions to reduce GHG emissions in buildings, transportation, waste, etc.  
  • Identifying and mitigating climate-related hazards  
  • Actions that result in resilience to future climate conditions, including preparing risk assessments  
  • Integrating climate change measures into strategies, planning and policies  
  • Improving education and raising awareness of causes and solutions of climate change  
  • Increasing human and institutional capacity with respect to climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning systems 

Examples of local climate initiatives 

Previous local climate funding initiatives that serve as examples of how LGCAP funding can support your community are: 

Eligible expenditures

Eligible expenditures can include, but are not limited to:

  • staffing and contracts
  • investments to improve energy efficiency and investing in climate infrastructure
  • matching funds to leverage funding from the federal government or other parties
  • risk assessments, communications and engagement 

Funding can also be used for capital costs such as designing and implementing robust climate infrastructure (for example, infrastructure that can withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions caused by climate change).

 

The Province supports Indigenous communities with climate action funding programs such as:

For more information on the full range of funding opportunities available to Indigenous communities and local governments, visit the BC Community Climate Funding Guide.

Contact information

Local Government Climate Action Program
LGCAP@gov.bc.ca