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New District of Squamish emissions plan targets Brennan Park

Electrification of District’s vehicles, buildings and garbage pick-up also on the table.
Patrick Donovan
What do you think of the District's plan? Let us know with a letter to the editor (editor@squamishchief.com).

The District’s new Municipal Energy and Emissions Plan identifies recreational buildings, its vehicle fleet, and waste pick-up services as the main drivers of greenhouse gas in the local government’s operations.

On July 13, council was presented with the plan, which offers several recommendations for how the municipality can cut down on carbon emissions.

Council voted 5-2 in favour of incorporating the emissions roadmap into the municipality’s financial and work plans in order to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets.

Councillors Doug Race and Eric Andersen were the dissenting votes.

Climate change has become top of mind after a record-breaking heatwave set new highs in Squamish three days in a row. As of early this week, eight other parts of B.C. are bracing themselves for another bout of heat warnings.

One of the plan’s key recommendations involved cutting down emissions from buildings, either by retrofitting, building green new facilities, or completely electrifying structures.

The report, which GHG Accounting Ltd. authored, estimates the baseline emissions for Squamish in 2010 to be roughly 1,330 tonnes of carbon dioxide — or its equivalent — per year.

The District’s climate action plan seeks to cut 45% of its emissions relative to the 2010 figure by 2030.

This means that the local government’s operations should generate emissions less than or equal to 730 tonnes per year by that point. This document is only measuring the emissions related to the municipal government’s operations. It doesn’t speak to residents’ or private business’ emissions.

Currently, the District’s emissions are estimated to be about 1,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, according to 2019 figures, which were used to represent a typical non-COVID year.

Concerning priorities for action, the report identified a retrofit for Brennan Park as a critical step, as it is the biggest polluter.

“There is one building that stands out significantly from all the others, and that’s the recreational facility — Brennan Park,” said Svend Andersen of GHG Accounting in the presentation to council.

The centre is the main recreational building of the municipality, and with an annual release of 420 tonnes of carbon dioxide, it accounts for 32% of the local government’s emissions.

Taking into account population growth, this could rise to 670 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a year by 2030.

In fact, Brennan Park accounts for so much of the local government’s emissions, it could, on its own, surpass Squamish’s 2030 municipal greenhouse gas target if it is not carefully managed, the report says.

“The most important aspect [is] to address the building stock, because with Brennan Park being one of the most single biggest emitters, it’s important to consider both the plans for the building as well as what is best practice,” said Svend Andersen.

Another key step outlined by the report involved constructing low-carbon buildings that are 100% electrified.

Yet another point calls for the 100% electrification of all the municipality’s vehicles, with about 81 vehicles contributing to about 440 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year.

With growth, the emissions are projected to rise to 500 tonnes in 2030 if things keep going along the current path.

Solid waste collection is identified as another essential action item.

Turning the municipality’s contracted garbage removal services into a green activity would require electrification of the garbage trucks.

Solid waste management contributes to about 190 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year and it’s expected to rise to 240 tonnes in 2030 under the business as usual scenario.

Carbon offsets and sequestration — meaning paying a company to suck carbon from the air to offset municipal emissions — were other big recommendations coming from the report.

Addressing embodied carbon, a reference to emissions that go into creating everyday materials that are used by the municipality, is another key step.

These measures, however, will have a cost, though the exact price remains unclear.

“This plan does have significant budget implementations to capital projects, to fleet purchases, already in the five-year financial plan and we are not able to establish what these costs are at this point,” said Ian Picketts, the municipality’s sustainability manager.

“Implementing this plan will require external funding. We are confident that there is ample external funding available, and that having this document adopted will position the District positively for getting a lot of this funding.”

External funding generally refers to grants from foundations or provincial or federal levels of government.

The idea of potentially huge costs in implementing these changes was a concern for Coun. Race.

“One of the real fears I have is the cost, and whether or not it will be realistic over the future,” he said.

He noted that the plan appears to prioritize adopting new technology, which is often very expensive when it first appears on the market.

“I understand we’re not going to be the first to do some of these things, but it can be just as expensive to be the second or the third or the 10th, as opposed to the 200th. So I do worry about the costs of some of these initiatives,” Race said.

“Brennan Park is an example that frightens me, to be honest. We know how much the new expansion might cost. The thought of adding on a renovation to the existing premises to reduce its impact is also another frightening concept...I don’t want to commit to putting it into our financial plan when we don’t know what senior government money might be available or where we might find the funding.”

On the other hand, Mayor Karen Elliott said that the motion was about ensuring that the community has discussions around what actions need to be taken to address climate change.

“There’s a lot of hard decisions we have to make, but every time we’ve raised the bar on climate action in this community, new people have shown up with ideas; with suggestions; willing to partner; willing to be at the table,” said Elliott.

“And I believe that has to be part of the strategy — to continuously raise the bar for ourselves and other municipalities and encourage the innovation, and the collaboration, and the ideas.”

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