On Parliament Hill

This week I was proud to announce over $1.8 in funding through the Green Municipal Fund to support the energy-efficient Trans Canada Center in Ile des Chênes. The funding was made available by our Conservative Government in partnership with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) through the Green Municipal Fund (GMF).

In total, our Conservative Government endowed the FCM with over $550 million to establish the Green Municipal Fund. The Fund supports partnerships between both public and private-sector funding to reach higher standards of air, water and soil quality, and climate protection.

The two-storey 30,000-square-feet centre is an impressive facility equipped with a 500-seat banquet hall, a commercial kitchen, and rental office space. Having been designed to achieve LEED® (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design) Silver certification, the upgrades to the facility reduce the energy consumption, operating costs and Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

After the announcement I had the opportunity to tour the Trans Canada Centre and see firsthand some of the environmentally friendly retrofits. The facility has a district heating system that uses this geothermal energy to heat the building. This system also serves the recently renovated arena and fire hall located nearby, making it the first Manitoba municipality with a geothermal district system operating three municipal buildings.

I want to commend the volunteers and staff who make this facility successful and I am proud to see this kind of innovation in Provencher. This project is an exciting example of how GMF funding can be combined with other funding sources – a broad range of federal and provincial programs in this case – to improve municipal infrastructure.

This announcement is one of the many ways that our Conservative Government – in partnership with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities – is helping municipalities like Ile des Chenes, to fund projects that increase energy-efficiency. The Harper Government is helping municipalities across the country achieve their goal of a cleaner and healthier environment for their citizens through the GMF.

I want to thank the FCM, the Transcanada Centre and the RM of Ritchot for working together to make this project a success.