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The Green Municipal Fund Celebrates 25 Years of Impact: Sustainable Communities, Stronger Canada

Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)
Monday at 10:35am ADT · September 22, 2025 3 min read

OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 22, 2025 /CNW/ – The Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM) Green Municipal Fund (GMF) is marking a major milestone: 25 years of advancing sustainability, innovation, and economic growth in communities across Canada. The release of GMF’s 2024-25 Annual Report: Sustainable Communities, Stronger Canada highlights a record-breaking year of impact and reflects on a quarter-century legacy of transformative investment.  

Since its inception in 2000, GMF has empowered municipalities to take a long-term view on growth and infrastructure through much-needed funding and training. In the 2024-25 fiscal year alone, GMF approved a record-breaking $311 million in funding – a 400% increase since 2018—and disbursed $147M to support municipal projects nationwide. 

“Every investment strengthens local governments: the front lines of climate action and the foundation of our country. These projects are more than infrastructure investments – they’re investments in people, prosperity, and our shared future,” said Rebecca Bligh, FCM President.  

Since inception, GMF has approved 2,736 sustainability projects, contributing $1.53 billion to Canada’s GDP and creating wide-reaching benefits, including: 

  • 16,209 person-years of employment 
  • $853 million in wages for Canadian households 
  • 4,100 units of sustainable, affordable housing built or retrofitted, saving building operators on average 46% on operating costs  
  • 2.98 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions avoided 

From clean energy to building resilience to extreme weather, GMF provides funding, strategic support, and training to help municipalities deliver real, measurable change. These investments are designed to be scalable, replicable, and community-driven – ensuring environmental, economic, and social returns for generations to come. 

Other highlights from 2024-25 include: 

  • Rollout of two new climate adaptation programs, Local Leadership for Climate Adaptation (LLCA) and Growing Canada’s Community Canopies (GCCC), both of which moved at exceptional speed to get funding to communities.
  • Significant progress on both economic and environmental goals: 944 housing units have been built or retrofitted under the Sustainable Affordable Housing (SAH) initiative, with another 9,200 planned, and the Community Efficiency Financing (CEF) program saved households an average of $1,383 annually in energy costs and supported 3,012 jobs. Both programs exceeded their emissions reduction targets for the year.
  • Ongoing investment in knowledge sharing and capacity building using peer networks and communities of practice to help cities share ideas and lessons, hone their strategies, and scale up successful programs and approaches. This year, more than 4,600 participants undertook training and communities of practice or accessed educational content through GMF. 

To learn more and read the full report, visit: https://greenmunicipalfund.ca/annual-report

About FCM’s Green Municipal Fund: 

FCM’s Green Municipal Fund (GMF) is a globally unique organization providing funding and education to municipalities to help them both reach net-zero and build resilient communities, while also delivering economic and social benefits such as jobs, housing, and infrastructure. Since inception in 2000, it has helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2.98 million tonnes, funded more than 16,000 person-years of employment, enabled 31,000 sustainable affordable housing units, and contributed $1.53 billion to the national GDP via the more than 2,736 approved projects. GMF manages approximately $2.4 billion in programs funded by the Government of Canada. 

SOURCE Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)

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