Next stop for Transportation Choices (TraC) Sunshine Coast and Connect the Coast, local groups championing the build of active transportation infrastructure from Langdale ferry terminal to West Sechelt along Highway 101: 2024 local, provincial and federal grant funding processes.
TraC spokesperson Alun Woolliams told Coast Reporter the groups are slated to present plans for priority sections of the 30 km all ages and abilities cycle/walking route to Town of Gibsons elected representatives Nov. 7. Areas in that municipality, along Gibsons Way from North Fletcher Road to Lower Road, and from Bay Road in Davis Bay to Wharf Avenue in Sechelt, were identified as those first focus areas in a consultant preliminary design report prepared for TraC last year.
Woolliams said the groups would be back in front of the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors during the upcoming 2024 budget process, which launches in December.
“Our overall plan is to apply for grants with local partners to get to a shovel-ready state on a small segment of the route. This will involve public engagement and a surprising number of studies required by the process. Once we have a shovel-ready project we will need to seek construction funding and coordinate agreements, and finally initiate construction. Then we will repeat the process for the remaining segments,” Woolliams wrote in an Oct. 31 email.
Grant opportunities and asks
Woolliams presented that preliminary design report along with asks for support for the initiative at an Oct. 19 SCRD committee meeting. Elected officials recommended the report be adopted “as a planning tool for future active transportation infrastructure planning and as data input for future regional policy and Active Transportation planning within SCRD." The board endorsed that recommendation Oct. 26. That motion, along with a letter of support received from the District of Sechelt, Woolliams said will be used to show local government support in applications for provincial and federal funding.
The groups had targeted a provincial Rural Economic Diversification and Infrastructure (REDIP) grant with an Oct. 30 application deadline but are now submitting an ask to another opportunity within that program to fund a more detailed feasibility study for the priority segments project. Woolliams said he anticipated funding announcements from REDIP in March of next year.
The project proponents are also eyeing a federal Green Municipal Fund grant opportunity and aim to apply there before the end of 2023. That program offers up to $175,000 of matching funds to study projects aimed at reducing pollution by improving transportation systems and networks or encouraging people to switch to less polluting transportation options.
A staff report on the SCRD Oct. 19 committee meeting agenda estimated of the feasibility study cost to be $450,000. The group’s pitch at that meeting targeted a $35,000 contribution from the SCRD in 2024. Woolliams said both may change as ‘there are still some moving parts on the scope and estimates of the design”.
