Program Guidelines - Lands and Economic Development Services Program (LEDSP)

On this page

• Objectives and Results
• LEDSP Core Allocations
• LEDSP Targeted Funding
• Eligible Expenditures
• Terms and Conditions of Funding Agreements
• Regional Contacts

Objectives and Results

The Lands and Economic Development Services Program (LEDSP) provides support to First Nation and Inuit Communities to assist with enhancing the economic development, land and environmental capacity of communities and to support the establishment of the conditions for economic development to occur, increasing their participation in the economy.

1. LEDSP Core Allocations, including:
   • Funding allocations to First Nation and Inuit communities and organizations they mandate to deliver economic development services on their behalf. Allocations are intended to enable recipients to carry out community economic development planning and capacity development initiatives, develop proposals and lever financial resources, and carry out economic development activities.
   • Funding allocations to First Nations to support communities' desire to take on a broad scope of land and environmental responsibilities, including land use planning, environmental management and compliance, on behalf of the Minister and under the Indian Act.
   • Funding allocations to signatories of the Framework Agreement on First Nation Land Management, on the Schedule to the First Nations Land Management Act (FNLMA)
2. LEDSP Targeted funding that provides lands, environmental and economic development support services to assist in achieving LEDSP's objectives of supporting First Nation and Inuit communities. These services will assist with:
   • enhancing the economic development, land and environmental capacity of communities;
   • supporting the establishment of the conditions for economic development to occur; and
   • increasing their participation in the economy.

This includes funding for regional and national institutions to provide capacity development services to First Nations.

The expected results of LEDSP include:

• To enable First Nation and Inuit communities and organizations they mandate to deliver community economic development, land management, and environmental management services. These services could include:
  • community planning and capacity development initiatives;
  • the development of proposals and leveraging of financial resources; and
  • carrying out economic development activities. In some instances, recipients may decide to carry out these activities by hiring economic development officers, land management officers, or environment officers.
• To enable First Nations to assume greater control over reserve land, resources and environment including land use planning, environmental management and compliance, on behalf of the Minister and pursuant to the Indian Act; and,
• To provide First Nations with modern land management tools and capacities. The initiative facilitates the transition from the Indian Act to the First Nations Land Management Act (FNLMA), and provides First Nations currently operating under the FNLMA with the capacities to effectively manage their land. This includes creating Land Codes, Individual Agreements, laws, land management systems, and environmental agreements.

LEDSP Core Allocations

LEDSP Targeted Funding

Eligible Expenditures

The following eligible expenditures apply to both LEDSP Allocations and LEDSP Targeted funding unless otherwise noted.

"Eligible expenditures" in relation to "eligible activities" include:

• Salaries, wages and benefits;
• Travel;
• Overhead including, but not limited to, rent, utilities, supplies, minor repairs and maintenance, accounting and audit services and insurance;
• Minor machinery and equipment;
• Communications, including, but not limited to, development of content, translation, dissemination, advertising, and signage;
• Professional, consulting, advisory and other services, including fees, travel1, and report production;
• Attendance at or participation in training and professional development programs, conferences, workshops, seminars, events, events and meetings, including but not limited to tuition, registration, travel, testing and evaluation;
• Work experience including travel^{Footnote 1};
• Preparation, organization and delivery of conferences, workshops, seminars, events, meetings and information sessions, including, but not limited to, room and equipment rentals, food and beverage, promotion, presenters' or facilitators' costs, travel^{Footnote 1};
• Land surveys and appraisals;
• Awareness and information sessions, training, and communications relating to environmental promotion and compliance;
• Feasibility studies, marketing, advertising, and promotion^{Footnote 2};
• Costs related to economic infrastructure including, but not limited to, planning, design, identification, capitalization and acquisition of rights and rights-of-way ^{Footnote 2}; and
• Capital costs relating to the establishment, acquisition, expansion or modernization of an Aboriginal business^{Footnote 2}.

Ineligible expenditures include:

• Payments for services that would normally be provided without charge (e.g. honoraria);
• The operation, repair and maintenance of economic or municipal infrastructure;
• Economic infrastructure which has a reasonable expectation of capturing capital and operating costs through user fees and other means and can function as a commercial enterprise; and
• Costs for services provided by a federal or provincial government.

Terms and Conditions of Funding Agreements

Funding will be provided to the eligible recipient through Contributions. In a Contribution, any money paid by AANDC is a conditional transfer payment for a specified purpose that must be accounted for and is subject to audit for determining adherence to terms and conditions of payment. All funding agreements will indicate to the recipient the type of funding approach being used which determines how excess funding, unexpended balances, disallowed expenses, and any funds not disbursed for the purposes of the contribution must be managed. Funding agreements will also specify a schedule and format for reporting to AANDC on project performance indicators.

Not all funding approaches are available for all projects. The determination of which funding approach is to be used by AANDC depends on factors such as recipient assessment, project risk and the ability to recover funds in future years. The following is a brief description of the various funding approaches:

• Set Funding Approach – Unexpended funding at the end of each fiscal year shall be recovered by the department. This applies to multi-year agreements as well as single year funding agreements.
• Fixed Funding Approach – Recipients are allowed to keep any unexpended funding balances provided that the program requirements identified in the program terms and conditions have been met. At the same time, deficits become the responsibility of the recipient.
• Flexible Funding Approach – During the period of the funding agreement or program/activity, the recipient may retain unexpended funding remaining at the end of each fiscal year for use in the next fiscal year to further achieve results toward the program objectives. Any unexpended funding remaining at the expiry of the funding agreement or the completion of the program/activity shall be reimbursed to the department.
• Block Funding Approach – The recipient may retain unexpended funding remaining at the end of each fiscal year for use in the next fiscal year to further achieve results toward the block's multi-program objectives as set out in the existing funding agreement.

Regional Contacts

All "DCI" documents referred to in this document can be found on the Recipient Reporting Guide page.