Province announces new Rural Economic Development (RED) funding intake

Jeff Green | Jan 22, 2020

RED is back.

The program which provides matching grants for economic development initiatives in rural Ontario, was used by the Land O’Lakes Tourist Association (now defunct) to maintain its operations for many years, and by Frontenac County to establish a community development officer position several years ago.

At the annual Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference in Toronto this week the provincial government announced that a relatively modest $5 million in grants will be available from RED at this time, under two streams.

Organisations located in over 400 rural municipalities in Ontario are eligible to apply for a share of the funding.

The first stream is the Economic Diversification and Competitiveness stream which provides a maximum of $150,000 to cover 50% of eligible project costs. The second is the Strategic Economic Infrastructure stream which provides a maximum of $250,000 to cover up to 30% of eligible project costs.

Municipalities, not-for-profit corporations, indigenous communities or organisations, and local service boards are eligible to apply for funding. The application deadline for the program is February 24th. Priority will be given to projects that are supported by a partnership between two or more organisations. Under the economic infrastructure stream, projects that were already under consideration before the application period got underway this week will be given priority.

Local municipalities will likely be talking about applying for funding when they meet in the coming week or two.

The ROMA conference was held in Toronto between Sunday, January 19th, and Tuesday, January 21st.