A motion by North Cowichan Coun. Bruce Findlay for the municipality to dramatically downscale its policy on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from new buildings to match current provincial levels will have to wait.
At the council meeting on June 4 it was decided to wait until staff prepare a report on the issue before council votes on it.
The council room was filled with people who mostly opposed the motion, with many speaking against it, but Findlay argued that building costs in North Cowichan have skyrocketed since council adopted the policy in 2023, and criticized council’s decision to jump ahead in the province’s mandated plan to have B.C. attain net-zero carbon emissions in new buildings by 2032.
Findlay said that given the resources the province has as compared to North Cowichan, it seems prudent to use the province’s "science-backed protocols" over "political-science backed" decision making.
“With the affordability crisis we find ourselves in, adding substantial additional costs for nothing other than political posturing and virtue signalling hurts our residents even more,” he said.
“North Cowichan council's job is to do the best possible for current and future residents, balancing economy, housing and environment… The idea of pushing for net-zero policies adds significant cost and makes some home ownership unattainable.”
But Mayor Rob Douglas said that, according to North Cowichan’s policies, the nature of Findlay’s motion makes it mandatory for municipal staff to prepare a report on the issue before a decision is made by council.
He said that under the municipality’s notice of motion policy, it states that motions “should be referred to staff where there are policy implications, statutory requirements, financial or budgetary impacts, staff-resource requirements or when council would like to consider alternate options at the same time”.
“We do have a clear policy in place and I understand staff do have a further information on this so we can get a better sense of what they’re hearing from the local builders and whether there’s been any changes since we adopted (Net Zero Carbon Level 4, which is the highest) last year, and what they understand of what some of the cost implications have been, or will be, as a result,” Douglas said.
Findlay said he would agree to amend his motion and have staff prepare a report as long as it's prepared and on council’s agenda for its next meeting, scheduled for June 18.
Council voted unanimously to postpone the discussion and vote.
In 2023, the province introduced a zero-carbon step code to guide local governments in the mandatory transition to lower GHG emissions.
All municipalities were required to be at EL-1 in the code by 2024, which means new builds are required to measure the emissions in new construction.
The province will continue to require municipalities to lower emissions in new construction through the BC Building Code until 2030.
But municipalities were encouraged to move faster than the mandated provincial requirements, and North Cowichan headed in that direction and is currently at Level 4.
