Programme de traitement des matières organiques par biométhanisation et compostage (PTMOBC)

• The applicant must be a private-sector legal entity with an establishment in Quebec (for projects creating or expanding organic waste treatment facilities).
• The project must be located in Quebec and process only organic materials generated in Quebec.
• The project must involve the creation or expansion of an organic materials treatment facility (anaerobic digestion/biomethanization, composting, or an integrated project).
• The project must demonstrate a need for the proposed facility and plan to treat at least 100 tonnes of organic materials per year.
• The project must plan for recycling/beneficial use of the outputs (compost and/or digestate) in accordance with applicable Quebec guidelines and regulatory authorizations.

Who is eligible?

• Private-sector legal entities (corporations) with an establishment in Québec
• Municipal entities (e.g., local municipalities, regional county municipalities (MRCs), intermunicipal boards, municipal corporations with a majority of elected officials on the board, metropolitan communities, mixed-economy corporations)
• Indigenous organizations (recognized Indigenous communities represented by a band council, groupings of Indigenous communities such as tribal councils, or Indigenous organizations made up of band councils)

Who is not eligible

• Companies listed in Québec’s Register of Enterprises Ineligible for Public Contracts (RENA).
• Organizations that, within the last two years, failed to meet their obligations related to a previous financial assistance granted by the ministère de l’Environnement (after being formally put on notice).
• Applicants seeking funding for the same part of their territory already subsidized under the “Aide au compostage domestique et communautaire” program (these programs are mutually exclusive for the same territory portion).

Eligible expenses

• Purchase and installation of equipment and construction costs for the organic waste treatment facility (including site construction supervision), including necessary on-farm storage structures for agricultural recycling.
• Eligible portions of equipment and building costs for a sorting facility that separates source-separated organics collected in bags together with garbage, including equipment/building parts used for bag separation and organic extraction (eligible share based on the percentage of organics present).
• Purchase and installation of biogas upgrading, compression and liquefaction equipment.
• Purchase of biogas-powered equipment, or conversion of equipment/vehicles to biogas (including the incremental cost of buying a biogas vehicle versus a conventional one), where the equipment/vehicles are owned by the applicant or tied long-term to the project and use the biogas produced by the project.
• Salaries and benefits for staff assigned to construction of the project infrastructure.
• Costs to have the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions declaration validated by a third party (ISO 14064-3), up to $20,000.
• Costs for the pre-project GHG emissions declaration and for post-project GHG emissions declarations and verification.
• Costs to prepare the pre-project submission (up to $25,000) and the detailed study (up to $50,000), plus costs to prepare plans and specifications.
• Printing, delivery and installation of the on-site sign acknowledging Québec government financial assistance during construction.
• For cogeneration projects, purchase costs of equipment that directly enables substitution of fossil fuel/combustible.
• For septic tank sludge dewatering on the site of a funded composting facility: costs related to receiving and dewatering liquid septic sludge, and storing dewatered sludge before transfer to the composting area.
• Purchase of source-separated organics pre-treatment/conditioning equipment installed at waste generators for temporary storage and conditioning prior to collection and transport (equipment must remain the applicant’s property).
• For residential organics collection equipment (municipal and Indigenous applicants only): purchase of kitchen pails and residential organics bins/containers, including delivery and distribution (and kitchen pails for programs using coloured bags), for expenses incurred after August 29, 2017.

Eligible geographic areas

• Quebec (applicants must have an establishment in Quebec).

• The PTMOBC ended on December 31, 2023.
• The program was launched in 2009 as a structuring measure under Québec’s residual materials management policy, with objectives to reduce landfilled organic matter and Québec GHG emissions.
• The program is financed by the Fonds de protection de l’environnement et du domaine hydrique de l’État (FPEDHE) through landfill disposal royalties, in line with commitments under Québec’s 2013–2020 Climate Change Action Plan.
• The program is mutually exclusive with the “Aide au compostage domestique et communautaire” program for the same part of a territory.