Vancouver to allow natural gas for heating in new construction

Article content

Vancouver council has narrowly voted in favour of allowing natural gas for heating and hot water for new construction, a plan the city’s sustainability manager warns “will move us back” on climate goals.

On Tuesday, council voted 6 to 5 in favour of a bylaw amendment that restores the option for new home construction to use natural gas for heating and hot water.

Article content

Coun. Pete Fry posted on X that Mayor Ken Sim joined the council meeting remotely to break the tie and “roll back climate work.” Fry also said that such a significant roll back of the city’s climate policies should not have been introduced on the fly.

Two of Sim’s ABC councillors — Peter Meiszner and Lisa Dominato — voted against the amendment. They joined Green councillors Adriane Carr and Fry and OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle in opposing the plan to allow fossil fuels to be used in new construction.

The amendment was proposed by ABC Coun. Brian Montague, who says the city needs a diverse range of energy sources in the event of outages and raised concerns about whether there’s enough electricity to meet the demand.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Montague said hydro power is dependent on the snowpack and the recent drought has reduced the snowpack, causing B.C. Hydro to import electricity last year. However Montague failed to mention that B.C. also exports energy to Alberta and the U.S.

“Further to the energy resiliency argument, when the power grid fails because of climate issues, flooding, winter storms, moments of crisis or natural disasters, we continue to focus on a single energy source and how do you ensure access to power when we have those things happens?” he said.

Article content

Article content

Brad Badelt, the city’s director of sustainability, said this plan would move the city even further away from its climate targets.

“I think that’s fairly obvious. It would set us back … potentially tens of thousands of tons of GHGs,” he said, adding this move would also create confusion in the industry and potentially roll back retrofits.

“On the climate front, it would move us backwards.”

Fry said the electrification of B.C. is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by almost a million tonnes per year by 2026, and lower provincial emissions by 40 per cent by 2030.

He contends those in favour aren’t really concerned about energy shortages but rather up front costs for developers.

“The irony is that this decision not only takes us backwards in terms of meeting international climate goals, it undermines industry work and capacity to meet 2030 Clean B.C. and energy step code regulations. It’s regressive on all counts, and does nothing to ease affordability for residents,” said Fry.

Sim argued that the move would ease affordability because the decision removes an obstacle to build more missing middle housing in Vancouver.

Article content

“During a time when everyday Vancouverites are struggling with affordability challenges, allowing natural gas as an energy source offers a cost-effective option for heating and hot water, helping lower utility bills, and contributing to overall housing affordability in Vancouver,” he said in an emailed statement.

Fry contended that oil would be cheaper than natural gas but neither will help reduce emissions, which is imperative in the fight to limit global warming to below 2 C above pre-industrial times. Above 2 C climate scientists say the world faces deadly extreme weather, mass loss of biodiversity, failed crops, collapse of the ice sheets, and catastrophic sea level rise.

But Sim argued Vancouver should be capitalizing on B.C.’s homegrown resources of hydro and LNG.

As a result of the vote, staff will craft the language amendment for council’s consideration by Nov. 1.

Last fall, Nanaimo joined several municipalities and banned natural gas as the primary heating source in new homes after it adopted the B.C. government’s zero-carbon step code implemented to meet 2030 emissions targets.

Saanich and Victoria are also early adopters of the step code, while Whistler, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Squamish and Port Coquitlam have taken steps to combat emissions from new buildings.

The bans are controversial, with some saying they reduce resilience in an emergency, and others arguing they are one of the best ways to reduce municipal emissions.

Article content

A city staff report last week said Vancouver is not on track to meet its target of slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent within six years.

The city has only cut community-wide carbon pollution by 17 per cent since 2007, according to the report. Badelt said a 17 per cent reduction shows that Vancouver is working toward its goal but agreed staff need to find ways to boost efforts.

University of B.C. political science professor Kathryn Harrison earlier told Postmedia that the fossil fuel industry is working hard to convince the public that it can’t do without natural gas but that all those arguments pale in comparison to the climate emergency.

More to come …

ticrawford@postmedia.com

With files from Glenda Luymes

Article content