OKANAGAN – The Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association recommends that you review the details of a new funding opportunity through the Province of British Columbia: The Community Economic Recovery Infrastructure Program (CERIP).
The application window for the CERIP is very short with a deadline of October 29, 2020.
The Province of British Columbia has allocated up to $90 million to support community economic resilience, tourism, heritage, and urban and rural economic development projects.
The CERIP provides an opportunity for Indigenous applicants, local governments, tourism organizations, heritage leaders, and not-for-profit organizations to apply for infrastructure funding that supports projects and initiatives for public use and that benefit and create jobs, support economic development and recovery from the impacts of COVID-19.
ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS CAN RECEIVE A ONE-TIME, 100 PER CENT FUNDED PROVINCIAL GRANT TO SUPPORT FOUR KEY STREAMS:
- Community Economic Resilience supports initiatives through investment in short term, small scale public infrastructure meeting the economic recovery objectives of initial job creation in the community and ancillary job creation in other areas hard hit with COVID -19 such as local retail and services.
- Destination Development invests in the development, conservation, repair, or rehabilitation of new or existing tourism infrastructure and amenities to assist in the re-emergence and resiliency of the tourism sector, creating jobs that will provide long term benefits for the tourism sector and local communities.
- Unique Heritage Infrastructure supports projects focused on the conservation, repair, rehabilitation, and development of cultural heritage infrastructure to help communities safeguard and enjoy their heritage places while creating employment through the stewardship of cultural heritage.
- Rural Economic Recovery improves the prosperity and quality of life in rural communities through projects that create jobs, develop economic infrastructure, support a vibrant local business sector, and accelerate economic recovery.
CERIP is designed to support projects that are construction ready in 2021 and can be completed by March 31, 2023. Projects must start by December 31, 2021.
Indigenous and local government applicants are encouraged to consider partnering with not-for-profit applicants in local communities wherever possible for their consideration and applicability to CERIP.
Every grant application is assessed in the context of the program eligibility guidelines. The final approval of projects and funds will occur when a new cabinet is sworn in.
Program information such as application instructions and links to resource documents are available at gov.bc.ca/CERIP.
The ministries and their delivery partner contacts are available to provide advice as you prepare your application. For information on the four streams, please see specific contacts in the table below:
Applications are now open. The application window for the CERIP is very short with a deadline of October 29, 2020.
