Government of Canada announces funding for new projects under the Environmental Damages Fund

August 13, 2018 – Québec, Quebec

Following the “polluter pays” principle, the Environmental Damages Fund ensures polluters take responsibility for their actions. The Fund takes money received from fines and payments from environmental offences and uses it to support progressive environmental projects.

Today, Environment and Climate Change Canada announced over $5 million in funding for four environmental projects based in the Québec region. The funds come from the largest Environmental Damages Fund award to date: $6.83 million. This award was the outcome of a December 2014 guilty plea made by Bloom Lake General Partner Limited to 45 charges under the Fisheries Act.

The following four organizations will receive funding:

1. Kativik Regional Government ($1.45 million)
   To identify abandoned outfitting camps in the Nunavik sector of the Caniapiscau River watershed and restore the affected environment and to clean up and restore those camps deemed as harmful to the environment and wildlife, with a focus on supporting shoreline restoration.
2. Water First ($500,000)
   To increase and stabilize fish populations located in waterways in the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach traditional territory and to deliver an adaptable and scalable community education program on fish stewardship to five Indigenous communities across northern Quebec and Labrador.
3. Institut national de la recherche scientifique – Centre Eau Terre Environnement ($1.54 million)
   To restore and protect fish habitats, deliver education programs, and seek to create and maintain cooperation between project stakeholders and local communities.
4. Institut de développement durable des Premières Nations du Québec et du Labrador ($1.6 million)
   To work with First Nations to create awareness on the effects of mining sites on the environment and to build their capacity to identify and restore hazardous ones.

Previously, $1.74 million from this Environmental Damages Fund award was invested in three research and development projects, through an Environment and Climate Change Canada memorandum of understanding with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Built on the premise that environmental good must follow environmental harm, the Environmental Damages Fund provides an effective way of responding to environmental damages by directing funds received from fines, court orders, and voluntary payments from environmental violations, to carry out projects that benefit our natural environment.