The Saskatoon Homebuilder’s Association applauds the incentives laid out in the city’s 30-year plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - but cautions against setting a building standard in an industry where the only constant is change.
“When we mandate work on the current housing stock, we already know from the association that it costs three to four times more to renovate to (the new) standards than to build to that standard,” CEO Chris Guerette told City Council on Monday.
She told council a new building code from the National Research Council is handed down every five years and the next cycle for building standards is coming to light in 2020 and will be introduced to the City of Saskatoon in 2021. She cautioned the city against mandating building codes ahead of this cycle.
Once building codes are updated in Saskatoon, it’s a good idea to implement these standards regionally to battle price disparity, she said.
"This needs to be a provincial collaboration. If we’re going to lead, we can’t have nobody else behind us.”
The city’s plan calls for a carbon footprint reduction of 15 per cent by 2023 and by 80 per cent by 2050. The plan also aims for the city as a corporation to reduce its emissions by 15 per cent in 2023 and 40 per cent by 2050.
The plan calls for an investment of $19 billion over the next 30 years, focusing on 40 plans for action to reach those GHG emission targets. According to the city, the plan would save the city a net of $33.6 billion over that same period. Those plans include a citywide solar strategy, organics recycling and a community plan for building efficiency.
Council heard from several speakers at Monday’s meeting regarding the plan.
Guerette said she is happy incentive programs are built into the LEC plan that will help existing homeowners achieve a more energy-efficient home. However, if the city starts to force these changes, it may put some homeowners in a tough spot, she said.
She is in favour of PACE financing, a means of financing energy-efficient upgrades and renovations through five to 25-year loans, which are paid back through property taxes, she said.
Kathryn Palmer, representing the Saskatoon Environmental Advisory Committee, urged council to press forward, noting that they city will miss its GHG reduction target for 2023 because not enough was done in 2017, when the city adopted GHG reduction emission targets.
“We already missed our GHG target for 2023 because we didn’t take action. Let’s not miss another target,” she said.
City council is being asked to invest $1.42 million in 2020 and 2021 to develop overall capacity.
Ward 5 Coun. Randy Donauer said he is uncomfortable with some of the financial forecasts and financial benefit forecasts.
“So it’s kind of like a $19 billion gamble,” Donauer told council. “There’s lots of great ideas here and even though we may modify the plan, we still need to be going forward.”
The first councillor to speak against the recommendation to move forward on the LEC plan was Troy Davies. His rationale centered around the city of Saskatoon not taking a leadership role in looking at the real cost for going through with building renovation or building retrofit plans. He said he feels the city needs to start having conversations around how the city can reach these aggressive GHG emission targets.
Davies suggested retrofitting lighting in all civic buildings, calculating the cost and savings.
Coun. Cynthia Block said the 30-year plan is based on information and data collected by the city’s administration.
“This is the best information we have in front of us.”
