TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL COUNCIL REPORT: URBAN FOREST STRATEGY REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDS AND GRANT FUNDING OPPORTUNTIES

TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL COUNCIL REPORT

TO: Council
DATE: February 3, 2026
FROM: Ivan Leung. P.Eng, Director of Engineering
MEETING DATE: February 17, 2026

URBAN FOREST STRATEGY REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDS AND GRANT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT an additional $22,000, net of GST, to fund the lift in the Urban Forest Strategy in programing for 35% and 40% canopy cover targets;

AND THAT staff be authorized to directly award the Growing Canada’s Community Canopies (GCCC) grant-funded work to Diamond Head Consulting, who will act as co-collaborators on the projects, to deliver the awarded Urban Forest Strategy programming over the next two years.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS:

Option #2: Council may consider not proceeding with the grant application should they wish to defer to future budget deliberations, and once canopy cover targets are adopted. However, all projects proposed for the grant fund fall within the critical items of the urban forest strategy, and therefore opportunities to lower costs and resources to achieve the program would be lost.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is twofold:

• To obtain additional funds for the Urban Forest Strategy (UFS) resulting from additional work not in the original scope of the project;
• To obtain approval for staff to proceed with submitting grant funds to kickstart the UFS program.

BACKGROUND:

Urban Forest Strategy Project

Staff were directed to expand the scope of the UFS by developing programming that would be consistent with 35% and 40% canopy cover target programming. This is currently outside of the project consultant’s scope of work.

The task to develop the additional modelling, prepare financial and operational forecasts, ground truth and fact check the program with comparable programs from other local governments, and to consolidate the findings into the UFS, will require an additional $22,000 (net of GST).

Green Municipal Fund: Growing Canada’s Community Canopies Fund (GCCC)

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ GCCC fund is a $291M initiative that will support planting at least 1.2 million trees nationwide. Eligible projects include plans and studies focused on the sustainable expansion and resilience of urban forests, to be delivered within a period of two years. The maximum amount of funding is the lesser of $175,000 or up to 80% of eligible costs, including $5,000 of pre application funding.

Plans or studies must be applicable to one of the five categories:

1. Creating an urban forest strategy
2. Creating a tree planting master plan
3. Developing or updating tree bylaws
4. Develop capacity building strategies for tree planting and maintenance
5. Develop an urban forest climate vulnerability assessment

Staff have engaged Diamond Head Consulting to develop a list of initiatives identified in the draft UFS that are (1) key to kickstarting the UFS campaign within the town, and (2) are the most likely to be successful in obtaining grant funding (detailed information on each activity is in Attachment 1 of this report):

A staffing and resources review indicate that the number of projects identified for the grant application cannot increased without significant hardships. The above noted projects provide an aspirational project delivery target that may require deferral of other projects within the Financial Plan. That said, these activities are considered foundational to administering an urban forest strategy that meet Council’s established targets - staff therefore recommend consideration of these projects as part of the Financial Plan.

ANALYSIS:

Impacts and implications can be summarized as follows:

• Community Impact: Momentum in actioning the strategies developed in the UFS
• Financial Implication: Approval of both (1) lift in the UFS funding, and (2) Approval to proceed with GCCC grant funding for UFS programming, will require inclusion into the Town’s 2026-2030 Financial Plan:
  1. UFS lift: $22,000 lift in project N-074 (Casino Revenue)
  2. GCCC grant funding: $188,000 worth of projects to be included in 2026 and 2027 as a condition of the grant requirements (fully funded by Casino Revenue or LGCAP, with a reduction in funds if grant funding is successful).

The projects noted above will be administrated by the Engineering and/or Development Services Departments.

ALIGNMENT:

The recommended option aligns with the Town’s following core guiding documents as follows:

• Strategic Plan: C: Climate Action and Environmental Stewardship – Develop an Urban Forest Strategy
• Official Community Plan: Preserving and protected the natural environment including trees has been identified in the recent OCP Update engagement events (OCP Vision Survey, OCP Policy Review).

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION GOAL:

The desired level of public participation for the recommended option is:

• Inform
• Consult
• Involve
• Collaborate
• Empower
• N/A

TIME CRITICAL:

The grant submission deadline is April 15, 2026. It is expected that submission preparations will take up to 3 weeks of staff and consulting time.

CONCURRENCE:

REVIEWED BY:

ATTACHMENTS:

1. Proposed GCCC Programming (2026-2027)