Rail Safety Improvement Program - Public Education and Awareness (E&A)

• Proposal template
• Application form
• Documentation showing the legal status of the organization, if requested

Who is eligible?

• Provinces and territories.
• Indigenous communities, groups, or organizations.
• Municipalities, local or regional governments, road or transit authorities, and Crown corporations, including VIA Rail.
• For-profit organizations, including railway operators and railway owners.
• Not-for-profit organizations, including academia.

Eligible expenses

• Staff salaries and benefits.
• Printing, publishing, and distributing material; room rentals and other facility costs; conference fees.
• Professional services, including accounting, translation, audit and consulting.
• Buying or leasing capital assets; administrative costs, including general administration, rent, insurance, and office equipment rental.
• Travel, including accommodations, vehicle rental and kilometric rates, bus, train, airplane or taxi fares.

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• Costs incurred before project approval or after the final claim date.
• Overhead costs.
• PST, GST, or HST that is eligible for a rebate, and any other rebate-eligible costs.
• Buying or leasing land or buildings, related real estate fees, and vehicles.
• Financing charges and interest payments on loans, as well as expenses already reimbursed through other sources of funding, federal statutes, or a funding program.

• Relevance and alignment with program goals and the call priority.
• Impact of the proposed project, including at-risk groups, trespassing hot spots, broad benefits, behaviour-change strategies, and innovative approaches.
• Project plan, including activities, deliverables, timelines, resource requirements, dependencies, risks, and partner coordination.
• Performance measurement strategy, including goals, outputs, outcomes, indicators, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.
• Risk analysis and mitigation measures, budget quality, sources of funding and partnerships, value for money, and applicant experience and capacity.

• Get a copy of the proposal template for the Education and Awareness stream.
• Draft your proposal using the template.
• Save your completed proposal in PDF or MS Word format, with a total email size under 25 MB.
• Submit your completed proposal by email or by mailing a hard copy and a digital copy saved to a USB to the Ottawa address provided.
• Applicants receive an automated receipt after submission.

• After the review, all applicants are notified whether their project was selected for funding.
• Selected projects receive an approval-in-principle letter with the funding amount and related funding conditions.
• Funding is not required until both parties sign a contribution agreement.
• Transport Canada completes a risk assessment before signing the contribution agreement, which helps determine reporting frequency, financial documents for payment claims, and audit or site visit requirements.
• Once the agreement is in place, payment requests must be submitted at least twice a year with supporting documentation, although more frequent requests are encouraged.

• Part of Transport Canada’s Rail Safety Improvement Program, which is a contribution program.
• Linked to Program 3.3: Rail Safety and Sub-program 3.3.3: Rail Safety Awareness and Grade Crossing Improvement.
• The program is part of Transport Canada’s efforts to improve rail safety and reduce injuries and fatalities related to rail transportation.