The funding is part of the provincial government’s new Brownfield Renewal Strategy programme to stimulate land development and economic activity.

Lands minister Steve Thomson said: “The Brownfield Renewal Strategy program is focused on encouraging the redevelopment of under-used lands that have potential for community benefit.

“The goal is for this funding to support the initial environmental work necessary to return these sites back into productive use.

“The program acts as an important catalyst for local economic growth, because for every dollar of government funding we put into these investigations, two dollars are invested by the successful applicants.”

The province is providing up to $40,000 (£22,500) for preliminary site investigations and up to $125,000 (£70,000) for other types of work.

It will fund up to 85 per cent of the costs for preliminary site investigations, up to 70 per cent for detailed site investigations, and up to 50 per cent for all other types of work.

The announcement was made from the eight-hectare Meadowlands Peat site, a historic landfill site and one of the funding recipients, in Delta city, south of Vancouver.

Shirley Meshen, Meadowlands Peat Ltd representative said: “These funds will allow us to begin the initial work necessary to resolve uncertainties around this site and begin a remediation plan.

“Collaboration will help us realise our mutual goals of social, environmental and economic health.”

Delta mayor Lois Jackson, part of the Saving Our Industrial Lands campaign to clean up brownfield industrial sites, said: “When sites like these are remediated, they pay dividends back into the local economy through jobs, a healthy community, and a clean environment.”

Brownfield sites are abandoned, vacant, derelict, or under-used commercial and industrial properties, which can be cleaned up and redeveloped.

For the full list of funding recipients and more information about the Brownfield Renewal Strategy visit the following link.

David Gibbs

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