The world is on the cusp of the next great industrial revolution and Squamish is ready, says Matt Blackman, the man behind the community’s push to become Canada’s fifth Solar City.
On Saturday, Mayor Patricia Heinztman and Councillor Karen Elliott joined Blackman at the official ceremony that etched Squamish’s name onto the Canada Solar Cities Project (CSCP). The initiative sets out 10 criteria municipalities must meet to claim the title. The City of Dawson Creek was the first community to achieve the requirements established by the CSCP, a non-profit organization that promotes and recognizes communities that adopt solar and alternative energies.
“This has been the combination of a lot of effort and time put in by a lot of people,” Blackman said, noting the current “green council” has been busy writing up bylaws that will pave the way for electric vehicles on its streets.
Thanks in part to the District of Squamish’s green outlook and council’s directive in welcoming alternative transportation modes, the community is on car manufacturer Renault’s list of possible locations to open its first North American manufacturing plant for its electric vehicle the Twizy, Blackman said.
“They are looking at Squamish for a new lab,” he said. “There is a lot of stuff going on.”
Heinztman said the district has not been in discussions with the European car company, but there is discussion about Renault searching for a place to assemble its two-seater, 17 hp electric motor vehicles. Movements like the Solar Cities Project help make such opportunities possible, she noted.
Squamish’s council was “to be pushed” by Blackman, the founder the Squamish Alternative Energy Group that set out to make Squamish a Solar City, Heinztman said. With the University of British Columbia’s Clean Energy Research Centre moving to the Oceanfront, the community is moving toward becoming an alternative energy hub, she noted.
“The Solar City Project is really emblematic of that change.”
Squamish’s community-led charge to hoist the Solar City title has opened the door to a new program within the CSCP, its executive director Bob Haugen said. While the organization will continue to promote communities to become renewable energy leaders, it has also started an avenue for citizen-led groups or “solar citizens,” as he referred to them.
“We realized the opportunity. We have completely changed our way of becoming members,” he said, noting before only municipalities could sign up.
Climate change is the critical issue of our time, Haugen said. Across the country, people express a collective sense of guilt when it comes to their contribution to climate change, though citizens have the opportunity to do something about it, he said. “Every reaction starts with an individual,” he added.
