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City of Powell River report outlines efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Annual statistics trending downward
City of Powell River sustainability planner Ana Lukyanova
PROVIDES STATISTICS: City of Powell River sustainability planner Ana Lukyanova recently reported to the city’s committee of the whole regarding efforts being made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, both for the city itself and the community as a whole. Paul Galinski photo

City of Powell River is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, but work needs to be done to meet targets established in its carbon neutral action plan.

At the Tuesday, January 14, committee of the whole meeting, sustainability planner Ana Lukyanova provided an update about what the city is doing in meeting its emission reduction targets. She said she was going to highlight the city’s emissions, as well as the community as a whole.

Lukyanova said she wanted to outline some actions pursued in 2019 to reduce the city’s emissions. She said 2019 was the first year the city itself became carbon neutral, so the city was able to offset its emissions with credits from Millennium Park and the Penticton Trails park. She added that the city installed new ice-making technology at Powell River Recreation Complex, allowing the ice to be flooded with cold water as opposed to hot, which has to be heated by natural gas. Also, LED lighting was installed at Evergreen Theatre.

Lukyanova said there is a green vehicle policy, where, going forward, when the purchase of a new vehicle is required, electric options will be considered.

“Those initiatives deliver substantial utility savings,” she added. “The strategies we implemented and launched in 2019 added up to over $80,000 in utility savings and $117,000 in incentives we received or are scheduled to receive from utilities in support of those initiatives.”

Lukyanova said a lot of the things the city has done were funded through Powell River Community Forest. She said some expenses were paid through the Community Works Fund, such as the ice-making equipment at the arena, but the payback on that expenditure is two years.

Lukyanova then outlined why the city has greenhouse gas reduction targets in place. She said in BC, the Local Government Act requires local governments to have emission reduction targets in official community plans. She said targets include the reduction by one-third from 2007 levels by 2020 and an 80 per cent reduction by 2050.

“Most BC communities have those targets in place,” said Lukyanova. “We also had an interim reduction of 18 per cent reduction by 2016.”

She said more recently, with updated science that has come out, and the climate emergency declaration, the province updated its targets as well. She said there is a city council direction to update the official community plan targets to align with the new science and provincial direction. She said this includes reduction by 45 per cent by 2030 and net-zero by 2050. These new targets will be part of the city’s official community plan update, she added.

Looking at city emissions, or, the corporate emissions, Lukyanova said statistics are not in line with the targets, even though 2018 figures show the city is in a downward trend.

“We are making progress,” she said. “There are a few initiatives in place I am really excited about that will make a big difference. One of them is a study we are doing for the recreation complex to see how we can use waste heat and transition to electric heat pumps as opposed to fossil gas. If we can find a cost-effective way to do that and funding, it would make a huge difference. It would take us a long way toward not only the 2020 targets, but also the climate emergency targets.

“We are not quite hitting the targets right now but we have things in place we need to get out there on the corporate side.”

Lukyanova said looking at the community as a whole, there are two big pieces, which are transportation and heating for buildings. Adding transportation to the statistics, there is an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from 2016 to 2018.

She said actions need to be taken to meet the goals. The first is active transportation, which includes walking, cycling and transit, with decreased personal vehicle use. Transitioning to electric vehicles and electric heat pump systems will also help greenhouse gas reductions, she added.

Mayor Dave Formosa said one of the reasons community statistics have trended upward is because the city has been busier. With a busier community there is more activity in terms of transportation, he added.

“It’s not necessarily that we’re doing anything worse,” said Formosa. “We are just busier.”

Lukyanova said things can be done, even with the population increase.

Councillor Rob Southcott said as the years go by and the city continues to support the initiatives, changing the way energy is used is not going to necessarily dampen the economy if “we are smart enough.”

“This town is ahead of a lot of other communities in BC,” said Southcott. “We’ll still be able to have a thriving economy and see the projections met. There’s still a lot of work to do.”

Councillor George Doubt said hopefully the economy will get bigger, and if the city does not change the way it does business, emissions will increase.

“We know the emissions are going to create global warming,” he added. “The numbers I see for the city are good; the city is doing a good job of reducing emissions, but we’re not doing good enough to meet the targets, which, science tells us, is going to limit the amount of climate change.

“The community is not doing as well overall as the city is corporately. We need to find ways to encourage people in this community to find ways to reduce their energy consumption.”

Doubt said he thought Lukyanova was providing a good picture and good things are being achieved in Powell River, but “we just have to do better.”