The RM of Victoria's hoping to be able to acquire more grants while reducing their environmental impact. This week they voted to enter into a partnership with Eco-West, an organization aiming to make municipalities greener that's well connected with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Reeve Harold Purkess says they'll have Eco-West coming into the municipality to study their fuel consumption, emissions, and waste, to compile the info into an extensive report. Purkess notes once that report is complete, they'll be able to access more funding through FCM.

"It opens the door to grants and low-interest loans for infrastructure replacement such as lagoons, or water treatment, or whatever, that we wouldn't qualify for if we didn't have all this information in one place. These people have it, they know how to put it all together, and present it to the FCM."

The partnership comes with a price tag of about $5,000 for the municipality, but Purkess says that money can be quickly recovered with access to new grants. He notes this partnership comes at an ideal time, as the municipality begins to discuss the implementation of a compost service. Purkess says while composting had been discussed in the RM previously, those conversations are starting to gain a bit more traction with some changes coming to their waste disposal program.

"We're all looking at solid waste management issues. Our local dump site is likely going to become a transfer station quite shortly, under the new provincial regulations. We're looking at probably starting a new composting program, and (Eco-West) can provide assistance including informational, technical and there are some grants available to help us get this composting program off the ground."

However, Purkess notes they're still early in the discussions surrounding how they're going to handle their waste management, but hopes the partnership with Eco-West will help them through the process.