TORONTO—The Ontario government is making almost $3 million available to community groups and other non-profit organizations for innovative projects to build cleaner, healthier communities such as shoreline cleanups, habitat restoration and tree planting. As part of the government’s plan to protect Ontario, the Ontario Community Engagement Fund (OCEF) uses penalties paid by polluters to fund projects that protect Ontario’s land, air, and water-supporting healthy communities and strong local economies.
“We are giving local groups the resources they need to make their communities cleaner and safer places to live, work and raise their families by restoring the natural beauty of these regions for everyone to enjoy,” said Todd McCarthy, minister of the environment, conservation and parks, “The OCEF program is just one of the ways our government is empowering communities to protect and restore our natural heritage for generations to come.”
Under the program one of the recent projects included a Manitoulin Streams Improvement Association (MSIA) creek restoration and garbage cleanup on Manitoulin. MSIA led an Island-wide garbage cleanup to reduce plastic waste in local watersheds, planted 700 native trees and shrubs to restore riparian zones, enhanced a cold-water stream habitat, and installed 445 metres of fencing to keep livestock out of Grimesthorpe Creek.
“Thanks to (OCEF), we were able to lead a litter clean-up event across Manitoulin Island, install cattle-exclusion fencing and plant 700 native trees and shrubs to create a riparian buffer along Grimesthorpe Creek,” said Seija Deschenes, project coordinator, MSIA. “This project is another great example of how OCEF is helping grass roots community groups work alongside local agricultural producers to help protect and restore critical cold-water fish habitat and wildlife, using their ecological knowledge of nature-based solutions to make a difference in watershed health.”
Applications are now open and must be submitted online by 5 pm (EDT) on September 24. Since 2010, the (OCEF) has invested more than $3.8 million from environmental penalties into 108 projects that have led to planting over 450,000 trees, shrubs and plants, restoring 52 kilometres of shoreline and collecting 1,350 bags of litter.