New Westminster – Jean Perrault, President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and Mayor of Sherbrooke, Que. and the Honourable James Moore, MP for Port Moody – Westwood – Port Coquitlam, on behalf of the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Natural Resources, announced today a $136,400 Green Municipal Fund (GMF) grant for the City of New Westminster. The City has used the funding to create a Sustainable Development plan.

“FCM’s Green Municipal Fund offers a range of resources and services that specifically address the sustainable community development needs of municipal governments,” said FCM President Jean Perrault, Mayor of Sherbrooke, Qué. “The financing and knowledge provided by the Fund supports the development of communities that are more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.”

“Our government is assisting municipalities across the country in achieving their goal of a cleaner and healthier environment for Canadians through the Green Municipal Fund,” said Minister Moore. ”Today’s announcement is another example of how the Government of Canada – in partnership with the FCM - is helping New Westminster build a greener future for our citizens.”

The City of New Westminster will create a sustainable development plan for its downtown area to support regional growth management objectives. Overall, the plan will guide development in a proactive manner using integrated policies and implementation strategies that will enhance the downtown’s function as a high quality, liveable, transit-oriented regional town centre.

Components of the plan include: reviewing land use/zoning policies; researching innovative ways to provide public open space; fostering adaptive reuse of heritage resources; and, identifying options to mitigate the noise, air quality and connectivity issues relating to the regional goods movement corridor. Implementation of the plan has the potential to realize an improvement of air quality by reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) through encouraging public transit use in the more densely populated core and protecting open space and natural areas by focusing growth within existing urban areas.

“With this grant, we are continuing to move forward with our plans to re-vitalize Downtown New Westminster, making it a great place to live, work and play,“ said New Westminster Mayor Wayne Wright. “We’re very pleased to have the FCM and the federal government as partners as we carry out this important planning work towards a sustainable future for our Downtown.”

The Government of Canada has endowed the Federation of Canadian Municipalities with $550 million to establish and manage the Green Municipal Fund. The Fund supports partnerships and leveraging of both public and private sector funding to reach higher standards of air, water and soil quality, and climate protection.

FCM has been the national voice of municipal governments since 1901. It fosters sustainable communities enjoying a high quality of life by promoting strong, effective, and accountable municipal government.

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Contact:
Blair Fryer, Communications Manager
City of New Westminster
604-527-4688

Dave Weatherall
Communications Officer
Green Municipal Fund
Federation of Canadian Municipalities
613-907-6292
dweatherall@fcm.ca

Jasmine MacDonnell
Director of Communications
Minister's Office
Natural Resources Canada
613-996-2007