Deadline: 8-Apr-25
The Rural Transit Solutions Fund, under the Canada Public Transit Fund, supports the development and expansion of locally driven transit solutions, by helping residents of rural, remote, Indigenous and Northern communities conduct their day-to-day activities, like access services, go to work, school, medical appointments, and visit loved ones.
Objectives
- To be eligible under the Rural Transit Solutions Fund, your project must meet at least one of the following objectives:
- Increase use of public transit relative to car travel
- Contribute to climate change mitigation and resilience
- Improve public transit options for all, especially equity-deserving groups
Program Streams
- Eligible organizations representing these communities can seek support through two program streams depending on the nature of their project:
- Planning and Design Projects stream: Through this stream, eligible applicants can seek grants of up to $50,000 in support of communities’ projects to plan and design new or expanded transit solutions for their communities.
- Capital Projects stream: Through this stream, eligible applicants can seek contributions of up to $10 million to help cover tangible capital assets primarily for public use such as the purchase of vehicles and supporting infrastructure.
Eligible Activities
- Proposed planning and design projects are intended to assess and/or develop a rural transit solution that is appropriate for the local community. Eligible planning projects can include assessing routes and modes of travel, feasibility studies, public and stakeholder engagement and surveys.
- Planning and design projects to support transit solutions to connect nearby communities in a region are eligible for funding, if they support day-to-day activities (e.g., get to work, school, appointments, run errands or visit friends). Proposed solutions that rely on air travel as a means of serving the community are ineligible under the Rural Transit Solutions Fund.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible for the Rural Transit Solutions Fund, applicants must be a legal entity capable of entering into legally binding agreements, be in good standing with the Government of Canada, and fall into one of the following categories:
- A provincial or territorial government;
- A municipal or regional government created by or under provincial or territorial statute;
- A public sector body created by or under provincial or territorial statute or by regulation or is wholly-owned by a province, territory, municipal or regional government. This includes but is not limited to:
- Municipally-owned corporations (e.g., autonomous organizations owned by municipalities that provide local public services);
- Provincial or territorial organization delivering municipal services (e.g., public utilities, community health services, economic development agencies); and,
- Any other form of local governance outside traditional municipalities (e.g., local service districts).
- A federally or provincially incorporated not-for-profit organization or charity;
- An Indigenous benefiting organization or recipient, including:
- A First Nation, Inuit or Métis government or authority established pursuant to a Self-government Agreement or a Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement with Canada, which has been ratified by federal legislation;
- A First Nation, Inuit or Métis government created by federal, provincial, or territorial legislation that includes a governance structure.
Ineligibility Criteria
- The following entities are not eligible to apply:
- Individuals/private citizens;
- For profit/private sector organizations; and,
- Federal entities, including federal Crown corporations
For more information, visit Government of Canada.