How to Register Your Project
The Climate Ready Infrastructure Service (CRIS) can connect your community with expert guidance for long term cost savings, resilience, and sustainability. This page will guide you through the simple steps to register for support.
Ready to get started?
Indigenous Governing Bodies, First Nation, Inuit or Metis government or authorities, and local governments from across Canada with populations of under or around 30, 000 inhabitants are eligible for this service. If you represent a local government, you can register a public infrastructure project to receive free expert consulting services and a technical options report from a member of our expert roster.
Ready to register your project? Click the button below to fill out our simple, 20-minute submission form.
Want to learn more?
The CRIS is a low-barrier service designed to support smaller communities with lower staff capacity. To register for support, complete our online form which can take 10-20 minutes. If you'd like more information before registering, see below for a clear, step-by-step guide to completing your registration.
Special Call for Projects: Wildfire Resilient Infrastructure
With the increasing risk of wildfire threatening communities across Canada, critical infrastructure and community buildings often serve as places to shelter in place, and organize localized preparation, response, and recovery.
To support wildfire resilience in Canada's smaller communities, the CRIS is offering a specialized Call for Projects to provide local governments and First Nations with up to $20,000 of expert consulting support from a member of the CRIS roster to develop options to address wildfire risk in one of their buildings, including addressing indoor air quality and fire resilient building design and materials. Projects are eligible for this stream if they aim to upgrade/retrofit or design new construction of local government owned buildings.
Buildings that are owned by a municipality, First Nation, Inuit or Metis government or not-for-profit organization (providing a municipal service) in a community under 30,000 in population. The project is in a capital, work plan or operational plan to be upgraded or is a new construction project:
- Community or Recreational Centres
- Libraries
- Multi-Purpose Buildings
- Administrative Buildings
- Arts or Cultural Buildings
- Civic Centres Including Pools and Ice Rinks
- Public Works and Maintenance Buildings
- Wastewater Treatment Plants
- Water Treatment Plants
- Fire Halls and Emergency Services Buildings
- Local governments in Canada with a population under or around 30,000 are eligible, including municipalities, First Nations, Inuit and Metis governments and communities, and non-profit organizations that own and operate municipal infrastructure.
- Local governments must have a relevant project included in a work plan, operational plan, asset management plan or council approved capital plan.
Communities who participate will receive up to $20,000 in expert services from the CRIS Expert Roster. The outcome of this service is a Technical Options Report, including a range of options to make your project more efficient or resilient, providing you with high-level costs associated with each option. This report outlines practical, tailored strategies to improve the climate resilience of your infrastructure project.
To request support for your wildfire resilient infrastructure project, please complete our short 20-minute application form. This form allows you to submit your service request to CRIS and begin the process of receiving technical assistance for your project. For more information on how to register, check out our 3-step registration guide below
3 Step Registration Guide
1. Verify Your Eligibility
2. Prepare Your Registration
Here’s a quick look at the basic information you'll need to fill out the online form. This will help us understand your project, your goals, and how we can best support your team.
- About You and Your Community: Your name, contact details, local government name, province/territory, and community population.
- About Your Team: Who’s involved, what departments are participating, your team size, and whether you’ve identified a climate expert or need help finding one.
- Your Project Overview: A description of the project, its current phase, approval status, estimated cost, funding, and how it fits into capital or strategic plans.
- Climate Lens: How the project addresses climate change, including climate hazards, emissions reduction strategies and any risk assessments completed (like using the Climate Insight tool from the Climate Toolkit).
- Timing & Readiness: When you need support, construction timelines, and what work has already been done.
3. Use the Climate Insight Tool
To strengthen your submission to the CRIS, use the Climate Insight Tool from ICLEI to discover how an expert can support your project.
Climate Insight is a free online platform that empowers communities across Canada with the data and information needed to build low-carbon, resilient housing and infrastructure. Climate Insight is designed to meet the needs of housing and infrastructure professionals, and is a key resource for communities feeling the impacts of aging infrastructure and increasing climate risk. With user feedback at the heart of the process, the platform’s functionality, features, and content is continuously being updated to better serve communities as they confront the growing challenges of climate change.
Register Now!
If you've reviewed the steps and prepared your information, you're all set! Click the link below to start your online registration—it’s simple, quick, and the first step toward getting expert support for your infrastructure project. You don't need to have everything finalized, but the more information you can share, the better we can match you with our Roster of Climate and Infrastructure Experts.
What to expect after you register
Still Have Questions?
Tune into our past virtual Information Session to get an overview of how the service works, hear first-hand from project participants, and watch a Q&A with our team.
Register for our newsletter to be the first to hear about upcoming events and webinars:
The CRIS is designed to support governments in building infrastructure that’s ready for a changing climate—but we know every project is unique. Our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section offers detailed information about how the CRIS service works, what kinds of support are available, and how to get started. Whether you're in early planning or ready to implement, you'll find answers to help you make the most of what the CRIS offers.
"The application process was seamless: it was very easy and very straightforward, and the CRIS team got back to me very quickly."
-Mohammed Awojobi
Corporate Climate Initiatives Coordinator | Climate and Energy – Public Works Department, County of Dufferin
"The results [of the CRIS project] provided clarity and prioritization for our Board and staff on how best to use our limited resources."
-Mark Boysen
Chief Administrative Officer, North Salt Spring Waterworks District
