Welcome to the Clean Coast, Clean Waters Initiative Fund

Funding for the Clean Coast, Clean Waters Initiative (the “Fund”) is provided by the British Columbia (BC) government as part of its far-ranging Pandemic Response and Economic Recovery initiative supporting all sectors that have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. 

The Fund will help to create jobs and support coastal communities as they recover from the COVID-19 economic downturn and loss of tourism. The Fund also supports BC’s work on addressing marine debris, as recommended in the 2020 What We Heard on Marine Debris in BC report, and the 2019 CleanBC Plastics Action Plan.

The Fund is directed toward marine coastal Indigenous Nations, Indigenous organizations and local governments in BC, as well as BC non-profits and organizations / individuals that have expertise in shoreline and marine debris clean-up and/or removal of derelict vessels.

The Fund will support two types of projects:

Marine shoreline clean-up: Conduct and coordinate shoreline clean up in marine coastal BC locations.

Derelict vessel removal: Conduct and coordinate derelict vessel removal in coastal BC locations.

The Fund is administered by PwC Canada on behalf of the Province of British Columbia.

Coordination of projects with other groups carrying out projects is encouraged to take advantage of a consolidated approach to extraction and end of life management of the debris/vessels. Applicants should also communicate with the Local Government and local Indigenous Nations to determine if there are existing shoreline clean-up or vessel removal work planned in the same area.

Applicants must also communicate with the Local Government and local Indigenous Nations to ensure support for the project and to demonstrate that partnerships or other planning is in place to protect sensitive areas. 

A letter of support from the appropriate local governments, Indigenous Nations governments, private or commercial landowners, or tenure holders will be required as part of your application submission.

Applicants must identify in their proposal whether any restrictions, partnerships of specific processes have been specified for shoreline access and use.

Applicants must also consider end of life management of recovered debris and demonstrate coordination with the local recycling facility and/or landfill. A key program objective is to manage and monitor the amount of debris that is diverted from landfill and applications will be evaluated on the plan for this.