Quebec recently unveiled an enhanced program for subsidizing brownfield redevelopment within the province. The new program, called ClimatSol, replaces ReviSol, a similar plan that ended in 2006.

While ReviSol focused strictly on redevelopment, ClimatSol will expand its efforts to uphold the rules of the Kyoto Protocol and require all eligible projects to provide for the retention or creation of surface vegetation or, in the case of construction projects, employ green building technologies to reduce energy consumption.

Over the next three years, the province will provide $50 million to municipalities. The bulk of the money will go to Montreal, which will receive $25 million. Quebec City will collect $5 million and the remaining $20 million will be distributed among other cities. Projects are eligible to receive a maximum amount of $1 million, and the program requires municipalities to match the amount received. Quebec estimates that there are over 30,000 brownfields in the region.

“With the installation of ClimatSol, we wanted to partner with municipalities while giving them access to resources to support their development,” says Line Beauchamp, minister of sustainable development for Quebec’s Department of Environment and Parks. “And in following policies adopted by our government, ClimatSol will directly contribute to the objectives of Quebec’s Kyoto action plan. We will rise to one of the most outstanding environmental challenges of our time.”

The new program also requires developers to adhere to the province’s Soil Protection and Rehabilitation of Contaminated Sites Policy and its Land Protection and Rehabilitation Regulation, which sets limits on contaminants and defines the types of industrial activities allowed. It also sets rules for the supervision of groundwater quality near the contaminated site.

Signed by over 170 industrialized nations, the Kyoto Protocol is a global agreement to reduce collective greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent, lowering it to 1990 standards. Limitations vary by nation; despite environmental funding cuts in May 2006, Canada agreed to reduce its emissions by 6 percent.