Email dated December 5, 2023 from N. Garry

We believe that maximum efficiency with fossil fuels is worse for climate impacts than medium efficiency with renewable energy. While you've designed a clever system that is very energy efficient and reduces operational costs, it remains a significant carbon polluter. We need to be clear that the goal of the Town and the community is to reduce GHGs now and to prevent new developments from increasing GHGs into the future. While efficiency is an important part of that, carbon emission reductions should come first. Likely the easiest low carbon change for this project would be to switch to independent systems for each of the buildings even though this will mean losing some energy efficiency. This is far preferable to the mounting costs of severe weather events like atmospheric rivers and forest fires that result from continuing to heat up our planet with methane gas. Methane is 86 times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

Methane leaks from every point from extraction to the combustion end point in our buildings and is detrimental to our health.

At its core this project as described to us, runs contrary to all that View Royal has been trying to achieve this past year, with our GHG reduction targets as outlined in our Community Climate Action Strategy, and demonstrated by council’s resounding support for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and the EL4 Zero Carbon Step Code.

The ask tonight from the View Royal Climate Coalition has to be in all good conscience, that council not support this project, or any such project that takes us backwards in our climate goals.

Respectfully yours,
The VRCC Core Team,
Linda Jeaurond, Ian Brown, Roz Isaac, Jane Devonshire