Funding of federal contaminated sites

The Federal Contaminated Sites Action Plan (FCSAP) was established in 2005 as a 15-year program with funding of $4.54 billion from the Government of Canada. The program was renewed for another 15 years (2020 to 2035), with $1.16 billion announced in Budget 2019 for Phase IV (2020 to 2025), and $1.48 billion announced in Budget 2024 for Phase V (2025 to 2030).

How much is being spent on remediation

Since 2005, FCSAP spending has totaled more than $5 billion, including more than $4 billion in remediation activities. Custodians have also spent more than $500 million of their own funding as part of the FCSAP cost-sharing requirement.

Project spending includes site assessments, remediation activities, and care and maintenance work to prevent catastrophic failures on higher-risk sites while developing remediation plans.

In FCSAP Phase V:

• 70% of projects have planned spending under $250,000
• 17% of projects have planned spending between $250,000 and $1 million
• 12% of projects have planned spending of more than $1 million

There are 28 sites with project costs greater than $10 million. These sites are located in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and the three territories.

Which federal contaminated sites are eligible for FCSAP funding

The FCSAP aims to address the federal contaminated sites that pose the highest risks to human health and the environment, with class 1 sites rated as high risk with the highest priority for action, followed by class 2 sites (medium priority) and class 3 (low priority).

Phase V eligibility of sites for funding (2025 to 2030):

In Phase V (beginning April 2025), site funding eligibility criteria expanded in Phase IV to increase efficiency and flexibility will be maintained. The new addition from Phase IV, which allows sites contaminated after 1998 to be eligible for FCSAP remediation funding under certain circumstances, will be expanded to include the Inuit Nunangat. Site funding eligibility criteria are described below.

Phase V prioritizes:

• highest-risk sites
• other sites in areas where Indigenous Peoples, racialized and low-income Canadians live

Federal contaminated sites are classified and prioritized based on the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) National Classification System for Contaminated Sites (NCSCS) and the Aquatic Site Classification System (ASCS) developed by FCSAP. The NCSCS and the ASCS provide scientific and technical assistance that allows custodians to prioritize their contaminated sites as high, medium, or low risk, according to their current or potential adverse impacts to human health and/or the environment.

Phase IV site eligibility (2020 to 2025):

In Phase IV (beginning April 2020), the site eligibility criteria were expanded to increase efficiency and flexibility. New class 2 and 3 sites became eligible for funding if:

• they could be ‘bundled’ with a class 1 or ongoing class 2 site. For example, a federal custodian could now remediate a group of class 1, 2 and 3 sites that are located in close proximity. This meant that a group of sites in a remote area of Canada could be remediated at a lower cost than if the sites were addressed individually over a longer period of time
• they were located on First Nations reserves or impacted Indigenous communities in the north, under the custody of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada

In addition, under the following circumstances, sites that had been contaminated after 1998 became eligible for FCSAP remediation funding if:

• they were located on First Nations reserves, or impacted Indigenous communities in the north, under the custody of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada
• they were being transferred by federal custodians to Indigenous Services Canada for addition to First Nations reserves
• they had been, or would be inherited by the government as the “custodian of last resort”