Communities at Risk: Security Infrastructure Program (SIP)

On December 15, 2011, the Honourable Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, announced that the next phase of the Communities at Risk: Security Infrastructure Program has been launched.

This program is designed to help communities at risk of hate-motivated crime improve their security infrastructure, which will help make Canada safer for all Canadians.

Eligibility criteria

Funding is available to not-for-profit organizations with a history of hate-motivated incidents at the project site and/or in the general geographic area of the project site. The funds are to help with the costs of security infrastructure improvements for places of worship, provincially recognized educational institutions, and community centres in communities at risk of hate-motivated crime.

Applicants not eligible for funding include Crown Corporations, public institutions, for-profit organizations and individuals.

Funding criteria

Approved projects may receive up to 50% of total project costs to a maximum of $100,000 per project. Applicants must demonstrate that the project has at least 50% of the project costs funded by other non-governmental sources when the application is submitted.

In-kind contributions include labour, equipment and expertise. In-kind contributions can constitute a part of an organization's funding commitment to the project; they must be detailed in the project proposal and afforded a fair market value.

SIP contributions cannot be used in combination with any other federal/provincial/ territorial/regional/municipal government assistance for the same purpose and eligible expenses.

Eligible costs

Examples of eligible costs include:

• security assessments;
• minor construction fees related to the project, such as fees for contractors, labour, equipment rental, installation; and
• security equipment and hardware costs including alarm systems, fences, gates, closed circuit television systems, lighting, security film for windows, relocation of existing cameras, anti-graffiti sealant, motion detectors, signage and landscaping.