Western Economic Partnership Agreements - Creating Opportunities through Collaboration

What are Western Economic Partnership Agreements?

Western Economic Partnership Agreements (WEPAs) are joint federal/provincial initiatives aimed at fostering increased economic activity and improving the quality of life in communities across Western Canada. The five-year agreements, which run until 2008, are cost-shared on a 50-50 basis and will invest a total of $200 million in the western Canadian economy.

Western Economic Diversification Canada is providing $25 million in funding to each western province. With matching provincial contributions, each WEPA will invest up to $50 million to create new employment opportunities, support economic infrastructure and promote entrepreneurship.

What’s the WD connection?

WD’s mandate is to promote economic development and diversification in Western Canada. Projects funded under the WEPAs have benefited Western Canadians by helping to create a better environment for growth, business development and innovation.

Funding is directed to initiatives that support WD’s three strategic priorities: innovation, entrepreneurship and community economic development. Specific priorities in some regions include tourism revitalization, development and promotion of environmental technologies, and ground-breaking health technology research and development.

Eligibility Criteria and Submission Guidelines

British Columbia | Alberta | Saskatchewan | Manitoba

What's been accomplished?

The current WEPAs build on a previous set of agreements which allocated a total of $160 million over five years towards federal-provincial economic priorities. An evaluation of those agreements showed that:

WEPAs had leveraged an additional $458 million from other levels of government and the private sector. In other words, every dollar contributed by WD leveraged another $2.86 from other sources.
An estimated 120 new businesses have been started as a result of WEPA-funded projects. It is expected that the number will rise to 586 by 2007.
Nearly $500 million has been invested in buildings, equipment and projects that created over 1,300 fulltime jobs.
This funding has been instrumental in advancing projects that would not have otherwise moved forward and has sped the progress of numerous economic and community development projects in Western Canada.
WEPAs have been a useful and an effective approach to fostering federal-provincial partnerships and diversification of the western Canadian economy.

Click here to see examples of projects that have been supported by WEPA..

What’s ahead for WEPA projects?

Through the Western Economic Partnership Agreements, WD will continue to work with the western provincial governments to invest in shared priorities that support a stronger future for the West. For more information about these priorities, please see the WEPA factsheet.