Grants and Contributions
About this information
In June 2016, as part of the Open Government Action Plan, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) committed to increasing the transparency and usefulness of grants and contribution data and subsequently launched the Guidelines on the Reporting of Grants and Contributions Awards, effective April 1, 2018.
The rules and principles governing government grants and contributions are outlined in the Treasury Board Policy on Transfer Payments. Transfer payments are transfers of money, goods, services or assets made from an appropriation to individuals, organizations or other levels of government, without the federal government directly receiving goods or services in return, but which may require the recipient to provide a report or other information subsequent to receiving payment. These expenditures are reported in the Public Accounts of Canada. The major types of transfer payments are grants, contributions and \'other transfer payments\'.
Included in this category, but not to be reported under proactive disclosure of awards, are (1) transfers to other levels of government such as Equalization payments as well as Canada Health and Social Transfer payments. (2) Grants and contributions reallocated or otherwise redistributed by the recipient to third parties; and (3) information that would normally be withheld under the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act.
$250,000.00
Jul 15, 2020
For-profit organization
Development and Testing of the EPiC-lite Camera System to Detect Very Small Wildfires
20STDPL11
Wildfire frequency, size and intensity continues to increase dramatically across the globe with devastating effects upon human life and health, wildlife, the environment, natural resources, air quality and economies. Wildfire management costs rise steadily, but budgets have not kept pace and agencies are frequently overwhelmed.
Thousands of wildfires start each year in Canada. Most are rapidly detected and managed but the remaining, due to limitations in detection methods and complications from other factors, develop into catastrophic blazes and are responsible for 90% of the forested area burned in this country each year. One such wildfire was the Horse River fire of 2016 that devastated Fort McMurray, Alberta and resulted in costs exceeding $9 billion (insured and uninsured). It was not detected until it was 2 hectares (140m by 140m) in size. 4pi Lab, a Calgary-based company, is developing a satellite-based system (EPiC) to detect and geo-locate very small wildfires (~10m) in real-time from space and alert wildfire management agencies across the globe. This will allow for very early wildfire intervention and disaster prevention. 4pi Lab will use the CSA funding to develop EPiC-lite (a ground-based version of the EPiC system) for the purposes of further proving the concept, validating many of the subsystems, techniques and methodologies necessary for space deployment and demonstrating EPiC's effectiveness to wildfire management agencies, policy-makers, stakeholders and investors.