Clean Coast Clean Waters Initiative Fund

About the 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 First Nations, Indigenous organizations and local governments in BC, as well as BC non-profits and organizations that have expertise in shoreline and marine debris clean-up, removal of derelict vessels and derelict aquaculture site clean-up.

The Fund will support three 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.

Derelict aquaculture site clean-up: Conduct and coordinate derelict aquaculture site clean-up in coastal BC locations.

Eligible applicants

Eligible applicants include:

Marine coastal First Nations in BC;
Marine coastal Indigenous organizations in BC;
Marine coastal local governments in BC;
BC non-profits;
BC organizations that have expertise in shoreline and marine debris clean-up; and
BC organizations that have expertise in removal of derelict vessels.

Eligible applicants must be capable of:

Entering into a Recipient Funding Agreement;
Entering into legally binding contracts;
Establishing and maintaining accounting and administrative records for all expenses incurred;
Obtaining applicable licenses and permits;
Obtaining required insurance coverage, including comprehensive/commercial general liability, automobile liability, watercraft liability and aviation coverage.

Ineligible applicants include:

First Nations, Indigenous organizations, local governments not based in marine coastal BC communities.
Non-profits, organizations and individuals not based in BC.

Coordination with communities and other projects

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, vessel removal or aquaculture site clean-up 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.

The Fund is now closed for applications

Welcome to the Clean Coast, Clean Waters Initiative Fund

2023 Approved Projects

About the Fund

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Eligible applicants

Coordination with communities and other projects