Rocky Mountain Outlook coverage of Canmore’s proposed Climate Emergency Action Plan
“This isn’t all on one entity. It isn’t on the Town. It’s actions being taken by a large number of stakeholders over a long period of time.”
Greg ColganJun 27, 2024 8:30 AM
CANMORE – A draft climate emergency action plan is estimating it could cost the Canmore community at least $843 million – or $32 million annually – to bring the region to near net-zero by 2050.
However, if all 93 action items in the plan are implemented – and if approved by council – long-term savings of more than $1.2 billion over the next 36 years are projected.
The potential costs, depending on what’s implemented, are spread among public and private sectors as well as residents. Actions range from making the Town of Canmore’s fleet electric, initiating new waste and water conservation methods and a wide array of requirements for development.
“This isn’t all on one entity. It isn’t on the Town. It’s actions being taken by a large number of stakeholders over a long period of time,” said Canmore Mayor Sean Krausert. “What we have to do is raise it up as something that’s important and to lead by example and do what we can control and some other things will follow suit.”
The action plan outlines specific steps for homeowners, renters, developers and expanding community connectivity.
It highlights initial upfront costs will be higher in earlier years, but estimates by 2028 the savings will outweigh costs. The draft action plan indicates average household energy costs of about $4,000 could drop to between $2,600 to $3,400 by 2050, depending on what is implemented.
“To put this into perspective, the [action plan] investments represent 2.54 per cent of Canmore’s annual gross domestic product of $1.26 billion per year. These investments generate returns from avoided costs for energy, operations and maintenance, and carbon price,” states the draft action plan. “These benefits accrue to the community as a whole, including households, businesses, and the Town itself.”
Yuill Herbert, principal of Sustainability Solutions Group and the consultant assisting with the action plan, said there was “no time to waste” and “infrastructure built now locks in patterns of energy use and emissions for decades to come.”
He gave the example of a type of car bought today continuing to impact emissions for at least the next decade and a home impacting for roughly the next 80 years.
Caitlin Van Gaal, the Town’s environment and sustainability supervisor, said the action plan goes beyond just climate goals.
“This isn’t just a climate plan. Although that may be where it was initiated with an update of our environmental plans, it’s really intended to be a community well-being plan to address affordability and equity. ... We want it to take that multi-solving approach,” she said.
The action plan is meant to guide the Town for environment and climate-related goals. It has several recommendations and actions the Town can implement “that are designed and based on scientific consensus, municipal best practices, public and stakeholder engagement, and climate modelling,” according to a staff report.
The plan is designed to amalgamate existing environmental-related guiding documents of the Environmental Sustainability Action Plan, Climate Change Adaptation Background Report and Resilience Plan and Climate Action Plan.
The draft action plan has seven main themes outlining the role of the Town, looking at reducing emissions, shifting to renewable energy and establishing strategies for water conservation and reducing waste.
Council approved funding for the action plan in its 2023 budget, which cost $211,000. The Town received $80,000 in grant funding last July to help with the work. Town staff worked with Sustainable Solutions Group to prepare the action plan.
It is set to return for consideration to accept for planning purposes at council’s July 2 meeting.
REDUCING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
Since declaring a climate emergency in 2019, the Town established goals to reduce community greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30 per cent of 2015 levels by 2030 and 80 per cent by 2050.
The Town itself would reduce its 2015 emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 for municipally-run buildings and equipment and 80 per cent by 2050.
If approved, the action plan would have new targets for near net-zero emissions by 2050, similar to the federal government’s aims.
Edmund Ong, chair of Bow Valley Climate Action, a community-led group that focuses on climate awareness, said “the plan does a good job in clearly laying out the important information about climate change in a local Canmore context” and “clearly lays out the magnitude of the challenge facing us in working to address climate change”.
He said BVCA’s main concern is the entirety of Canmore working towards addressing climate change, particularly “what will actually get done”.
“We’re optimistic. We know that our community here in the Bow Valley cares deeply about responsible environmental stewardship,” said Ong. “And so, we hope that this plan helps us all to better understand what needs to be done and gives us useful and practical ideas for how we can do it.”
Ong said the plan will be a guide and “shows us where and how our community is polluting, and the plan breaks down the risks and consequences coming our way. … Most importantly, the plan guides us through how we can move to a future of responsible environmental stewardship.”
According to the draft action plan, Canmore used 6,343 megajoules of energy in 2022, which largely came from fueling vehicles, heating homes and running appliances. Along with landfill emissions, it created 461 kiloton carbon dioxide emissions (ktCO2e) of greenhouse gas emissions, with two-thirds coming from transportation. The draft action plan noted Canmore’s 2022 permanent population created 27.8 tonnes carbon dioxide (tCO2e) per person, which is higher than the 2021 national average of 17.5 tCO2e).
Among the significant moves needed for Canmore to achieve near net-zero are switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy, reducing building emissions, rethinking mobility to include more cycling and walking as well as electric vehicles and being more efficient with waste, water and wastewater management.
Additionally, it cautions climate-related damage could grow to be $10s of millions annually by 2070 without action.
It highlights “Canmore will be getting warmer and wetter, with wilder weather” and can expect to see multiple days above 30 Celsius. The changing climate can have impacts such as flooding, drought conditions, damage to infrastructure and increased chances of wildfire and smoke.
The action plan notes Canmore is expected to grow to about 27,000 people by 2050, necessitating more housing, transportation options and services for more residents. In addition, it has annual visitation of three to five million.
It indicates the need for both mitigation and addressing the cause of climate-related issues are crucial to tackle simultaneously.
“Mitigating and adapting to climate change are two interconnected approaches that are crucial for addressing the challenges posed by a changing climate,” states the draft action plan. “While they have distinct goals and strategies, their combined efforts are needed to ensure the long-term sustainability of ecosystems, economies, and societies.”
FUTURE ENGAGEMENT CRITICAL FOR SUCCESS
Among the partners listed in the implementation plan are Tourism Canmore Kananaskis, Bow Valley Builders and Developers Association (BOWDA), the Town of Canmore and council, Alberta Parks, the province, Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley, Bow Valley Climate Action, EPCOR and TransAlta.
Town staff underwent a lengthy public engagement period that involved internal meetings with different departments, while two online public meetings were held, two roundtable discussions and four focus groups were held. Dedicated sessions were also held with specific organizations, a public survey was open for a month and eight in-person pop-up sessions were held.
In addition to the draft plan, several annexes focus on a climate risk and vulnerability assessment report, financial analysis, carbon budget report and engagement summary.
Lori Williams, a political scientist at Mount Royal University, said to get community buy-in it’s vital to have channels for the public to express their thoughts.
“Citizens of any municipality are [considerably] if they feel like they’re being consulted and [if] they [do or don't] have a say,” she said.
“Consultation with citizens is deeply valued [in Alberta]. Government is supposed to be transparent and accountable to the voters. If you’re not making it possible for them to engage in communication between elections, you might get slammed in the next election.”
In 2022, council axed the 25-year-old environmental advisory review committee, eliminating one of the few committees with public members.
Though the Town has added positions solely focused on environment and jobs have evolved to encompass environmental impacts on recommendations, the removal of an aspect hearing from the public is a step backward, Williams said.
Williams stressed the importance of listening to residents, but also seeking out the opinions of the community before implementing wide-ranging plans.
“Democratically elected officials have to find ways to open channels of communication. If you don’t … If you handle it well, you manage it well, you plan it and have it in place regularly, then chances are very good you’re going to get more positive results than if you look like you have something to hide,” she said.
The implementation plan outlines 93 actions to reduce GHG impact, projected cost, timelines and who to partner with in the community. It lists 20.65 full-time positions are needed to complete the tasks, but doesn’t necessarily mean new positions.
“The climate emergency action plan is a long-range plan … It’s really kind of a road map and a plan to how we move forward in the long-term,” said Whitney Smithers, the Town’s general manager of municipal infrastructure.
“I don’t want it set out there that this is all new stuff we have to find a way to fund. I want to stress, it’s long-term and some of it is going to be repositioning or pivoting of work we already do to look at it on new and different ways of delivering those services in alignment with our climate goals.”
‘Identify who will bear what costs’
A key aspect of climate action revolves around the building of homes and the amount of green technology legally required to be included in new developments.
Though beneficial to the environment, heat pumps, solar panels and water conservation may offer long-term savings but contribute to a higher price point in the immediate construction.
Jason Nixon, the province’s housing minister, said at the June 13 BOWDA luncheon the priority for him and the provincial government is building housing rather than solely focusing on reducing GHG emissions.
He noted the province is facing a shortfall of 130,000-170,000 homes by 2030, according to data from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Nixon emphasized the bedrock of housing policy should be on increasing supply.
“The No. 1 thing the federal government can do to restore affordability, not just in housing but in anywhere and the No. 1 thing the social services sector is complaining about to me … is to immediately abolish the federal carbon tax, which is creating an affordability crisis through multiple industries,” he said.
“We should not be heading down the level of green building codes we see coming from the federal government and our focus is making sure we can build affordable homes. In general, I don’t think the main focus should be GHG emissions when it comes to building houses, it should be building roofs and for affordable homes to make sure people can live there.”
The province also hasn’t been hesitant in stepping in if a municipality demands more green building practices than it can under the Municipal Government Act.
The Alberta government revoked Calgary’s and Edmonton’s ability to mandate such policies on builders, leaving incentivization methods as the key method to introduce green technology.
A new provincial building code and National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings came into effect May 1. The provincial building code drew criticism since it selected the lowest of five energy tiers in mandating green-related technology.
A study from BILD Alberta, a provincial advocacy group for the development and construction industry, estimated the new regulations would add about $35,000 per newly built homes.
The financial analysis of the plan highlights it doesn’t include administrative, education and marketing costs with the actions as well as land purchases for renewable energy infrastructure and installation of transit infrastructure in Canmore and large-scale renewable energy outside the Town’s boundary.
The financial analysis projects if the capital investments are fully implemented, it would result in $2 billion financial net return across Canmore.
It highlights the most expensive action compared to a reduction in GHG emissions is increasing active mode trips. The next highest cost is for residential retrofits and converting to heat pumps for heating and cooling.
Ian O’Donnell, executive director of BOWDA, said the building and development sector are “committed in working with our various partners” to look at options “for less carbon-intensive outcomes going forward.
He noted professional cost-benefit analysis need to be completed “to support the proposed initiatives and identify who will bear what costs.”
With communities across the country facing a housing shortage and Canmore expected to have several hundred builds starting annually in the coming years, O’Donnell said BOWDA members are looking forward to “identify opportunities within this ambitious plan and assess strategies to best determine options for implementation”.
He said the plan offers a good start, “but more work must be done on the tactics as many are quite general and open to interpretation; identifying and clearly stating funding mechanisms is a vital first step.”