New Brunswick's Environmental Trust Fund rejected 40% of applications this year
Rejection rates have doubled in 10 years as program remains without dedicated funding
New Brunswick's Environmental Trust Fund is continuing to go through years of accumulated savings to support community-based environmental projects, and the provincial Environment Department is not rushing to find the program a new source of revenue.
Two years ago, the province terminated dedicated income for the trust fund, which was set up more than 30 years ago to support "grassroots environmental restoration and protection" projects.
This year, the fund is using "the accumulated surplus to continue to support priority projects while alternative funding sources are evaluated," department spokesperson Vicky Lutes said in an email.
"It's too early to say what the fund will look like in the future."
The trust fund was financed initially by dedicated video lottery revenues and later by a fixed share of bottle deposit money.
But it was left without any long-term funding when the former Progressive Conservative government overhauled the bottle deposit system in 2023 legislative changes and redirected what had been environmental trust fund revenue to a program run by the beverage industry.
In 2023, former PC environment minister Gary Crossman said new "revenue streams" for the Environmental Trust Fund to replace bottle-deposit money would be evaluated, but nothing came of that before the Blaine Higgs government lost the general election last fall to the Liberals under Susan Holt.
In early 2024, then Liberal environment critic Gilles LePage criticized Crossman and his department for leaving the trust fund without its own income source.
"I thought the plan would be available this year because we've been waiting for a full year," Lepage said during a legislature committee examination of the department's budget.
"It's kind of worrisome for some organizations that do excellent work under that fund, so I'm very disappointed."
Lepage is now the environment minister but has not announced any plan of his own.
A request this week to interview Lepage about the fund was not granted.
The trust fund did have an interest-generating surplus in its accounts of $40.9 million built up over 30 years and has been using that money to keep itself running.
It has already spent nearly half that amount and has been depleting what's left at a rate of more than $20,000 a day.
In April the province announced the fund would be supporting 196 community projects this year with $9.7 million.
But to keep to that number, 40 per cent of applications for funding by groups had to be rejected, and in some cases successful projects were granted less than they asked for.
Ten years ago the trust fund rejected fewer than 20 per cent of applications it received.
Beverly Gingras, the executive director of the New Brunswick Conservation Council, said her group has been awarded two trust fund grants for this year, but a third application was turned down.
In a letter explaining that rejection the department cited "limited funds" as an issue.
Gingras said the long-term and dedicated funding for the trust fund, which has supported more than 5,000 projects around New Brunswick since its inception, is a major worry to people working on environmental issues.
"Groups like mine and other not-for-profits are very, very concerned," Gingras said. "We really do understand the value of that program
Nicole Waaler of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in Saint Andrews is also hoping for a resolution.
The centre runs a successful marine debris reduction program that was profiled by the Environmental Trust Fund three years ago as one of its success stories.
Waaler said a grant application to continue with the program this year was approved by the trust fund, but for $50,000, $5,000 less than the group requested.
"We are very supportive of the Environmental Trust Fund," Waaler said.
"Whether its for climate change or marine debris or watershed things, there are all kinds of cool stuff that people are working on, and so I hope the Environmental Trust Fund can continue."
The trust fund has fallen out of favour with governments in the past and has had its financial support seized, redirected and whittled down multiple times. Adjusted for inflation, its budget for financing community projects this year is two-thirds smaller than it was 30 years ago.
The Green Party's Megan Mitton said she would like to see the Holt government act quickly to secure the trust fund's future — as the Liberals once urged the Higgs government to do — without it having to burn through all of its savings first.
"I guess I'll echo what Minister LePage said when he was the critic for environment," Mitton said. "I'm surprised and disappointed there is not a plan in place."
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