Today, the Honourable Julie Dabrusin, Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature, marks the 30th anniversary of the Environmental Damages Fund by announcing that the Government of Canada will invest over $10.6 million in 23 projects that benefit ecosystems and communities across Canada.
For 30 years, the Environmental Damages Fund has turned fines, penalties, court orders, and voluntary payments from environmental violations into impactful projects that restore the environment and conserve wildlife and their habitats, showing that environmental harm can lead to environmental healing.
Since the program's inception in 1995, more than $255 million has been invested in over 600 projects. These community-led initiatives have played a vital role in safeguarding biodiversity and fostering long-term environmental stewardship and resilience.
And now 23 new community-led projects are being added to the program, each receiving funding for projects that will focus on restoring or improving the natural environment, protecting wildlife, and improving environmental quality, as well as for research and development leading to restoration.
It is estimated that these 23 projects will:
- Engage more than 6,500 participants and over 130 community partner organizations in project activities
- Monitor, assess, and direct studies in more than 116,000 hectares of wildlife habitat, which equals nearly twice the size of Toronto, Canada's largest city
- Improve environmental quality on more than 120 hectares of habitat, which equals roughly 218 football fields
- Reduce or divert 7,600 kilograms of toxic or harmful waste from the environment
By reinvesting fines from environmental violations in projects that restore the natural environment-often in the very places where damage occurred- the Environmental Damages Fund supports meaningful recovery and reinforces the principle that environmental good must follow environmental harm.
