Correspondence: Courtenay UBCM Resolution: Help Cities Lead
Request to support Courtenay's resolution for expanded municipal authority over building-sector GHG emissions.
From: RON MATTSON rmattson@shaw.ca
Sent: July 8, 2021 7:06 AM
To: RON MATTSON rmattson@shaw.ca
Cc: Kim Anema KAnema@viewroyal.ca; David Screech MayorScreech@viewroyal.ca; John Rogers JRogers@viewroyal.ca; Gery Lemon GLemon@viewroyal.ca; Damian Kowalewich DKowalewich@viewroyal.ca
Subject: Re: Courtenay UBCM Resolution: Help Cities Lead
Hi Colleagues,
Further to my last note, here is the motion
----- Original Message -----
From: RON MATTSON rmattson@shaw.ca
To: Kim Anema KAnema@viewroyal.ca
Cc: David Screech dscreech@viewroyal.ca, John Rogers JRogers@viewroyal.ca, Gery Lemon GLemon@viewroyal.ca, Damian Kowalewich DKowalewich@viewroyal.ca
Sent: Thu, 08 Jul 2021 08:02:48 -0600 (MDT)
Subject: Re: Courtenay UBCM Resolution: Help Cities Lead
Hi Kim,
In the spirit of David's recent appeal to Council, would you please put the following on the next CoW agenda.
Many thanks,
Ron
----- Original Message -----
From: RON MATTSON rmattson@shaw.ca
To: David Screech dscreech@viewroyal.ca, John Rogers JRogers@viewroyal.ca, Gery Lemon GLemon@viewroyal.ca, Damian Kowalewich DKowalewich@viewroyal.ca
Sent: Thu, 08 Jul 2021 07:59:21 -0600 (MDT)
Subject: Courtenay UBCM Resolution: Help Cities Lead
Dear Colleagues,
If you are going to UBCM, would you please support Courtenay's Help Cities Lead Resolution. I have attached a copy of a letter sent by North Vancouver to the Government that outlines measure contained in the initiative. Sorry I don't know the number but the resolution passed at council is a follow:
"WHEREAS building retrofits help drive deep building-sector emissions reductions, respiratory illness reductions, building operating cost reductions, and job creation, yet local governments are currently constrained with existing legislation; and,
WHEREAS Integral Group modelling has shown that when implemented together, these five actions compliment each other;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) prevail upon the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Energy Mines and Low Carbon Innovation (EMLCI), and Attorney-General and Ministry responsible for Housing to move as quickly as possible and in close consultation with local governments to develop and implement the first three measures:
- Regulating GHG emissions for new buildings;
- Home energy labelling; and
- Property assessed clean energy (PACE) enabling legislation;
And also enable local governments to choose, when ready, to opt into the remaining two measures:
- Regulating GHG emissions for existing buildings;
- Building energy benchmarking and reporting."
Thanks
Ron
ps... there will likely be a number of similar resolutions
Re: Help Cities Lead (HCL) Campaign
Mayor Mike Little
mayor@dnv.org
March 3, 2021
File:
The District of North Vancouver is sending this letter to you as an endorsement of the Help Cities Lead (HCL) campaign.
As you are aware, municipalities are on the front lines of climate change dealing with the impacts of floods, droughts, forest fires, heat waves, etc. We directly influence about half of Canada's energy use and emissions. The success of the province in achieving deep emissions reductions from the building sector is directly connected to the success of local governments in achieving their own targets. While municipalities have shown strong climate leadership, expanded regulatory authority is needed for taking bolder steps to achieving our climate targets. HCL is an education and awareness campaign focused on accelerating building decarbonization through collaboration between the Province of British Columbia and local governments. The group is led by Climate Caucus and supported by local governments and environmental NGO's.
Why buildings? Emissions from buildings account for about 11% of the province's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and for municipalities, GHG emissions from existing buildings account for 40-60% of community emissions. A number of BC local governments have made climate emergency declarations and set ambitious targets to significantly reduce GHG emissions from buildings over the next 10 years. However, local governments are largely limited to information campaigns and incentives for pursuing these ambitious reduction targets. Recent climate policy modelling shows that on their own, these policy tools are insufficient to achieve broad and deep energy and GHG reductions given limited budgets.
HCL campaign recommends a suite of expanded authorities for local governments that will enable communities to take bolder action on reducing GHG emissions from new and existing buildings:
- Property assessed clean energy (PACE) financing
- Mandatory home energy labelling
- Regulating GHG emissions for new buildings
- Regulating GHG emissions for existing buildings
- Mandatory building energy benchmarking and reporting
We are pleased to see that the November 2020 mandate letters to the Ministers of Municipal Affairs and Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Infrastructure support the implementation of PACE financing. We also note that the mandate letter for the Minister of Finance supports home energy labelling. Finally we pleased to see that the mandate letter to the Attorney-General and Minister Responsible for Housing includes support for regulation of GHG emission of new buildings.
We support the directions set out in these new mandate letters regarding PACE financing, home energy labelling, and GHG requirements for new buildings and request that the province empower local governments to opt to take action, if they so choose, on the two remaining items of the Help Cities Lead's campaign, namely GHG requirements for existing buildings and building energy benchmarking. Additional information about each of the initiatives can be found at https://www.helpcitieslead.ca/
It is our hope that you would consider meeting with a delegation from Help Cities Lead for further discussion on these initiatives.