North Cowichan has voted to significantly downscale its policy on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from new buildings.
At the council meeting on June 18, council voted 4-2 to direct staff to set the municipality’s current zero-carbon emissions level, which is at the highest level of EL-4, to match the provincial B.C. Building Code level, which is currently at EL-1, and follow the province's schedule for further changes to the zero-carbon step code.
In 2023, the province introduced the zero-carbon step code to guide local governments in the mandatory transition to lower GHG emissions from new buildings. All municipalities were required to be at EL-1 in the code by 2024, which means new builds are required to measure and report the emissions in new construction. The province will continue to require municipalities to incrementally 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 and a number of other local governments headed in that direction and quickly implemented EL-4, which means zero-carbon emissions from new builds.
But concerns were raised by the building community and other groups who said North Cowichan’s decision to move to EL-4 well before the province has increased the costs of construction; the belief that the amount of electricity available to keep up with the demand as builders switch from fossil fuels for mainly heating will not keep up with demand; and other concerns.
Coun. Bruce Findlay made the motion for North Cowichan to change its policy on the issue at the council meeting on June 4, but council decided to wait for a staff report before making any decisions.
The staff report by climate change specialist Jennifer Aldcroft recommended that North Cowichan stay the course and leave the emission level at EL-4, noting that emissions from new buildings in North Cowichan have declined considerably since the step code was implemented.
Aldcroft said an industry survey done by the Zero Emissions Innovation Centre found that energy and emissions requirements were not significant drivers of capital cost variance, and the highest drivers of housing costs were borrowing costs, interest rates, land values, and development cost charges and levies.
A number of people in the gallery at the meeting on June 18 spoke to the issue, with some supporting Findlay’s motion, while others spoke against it.
David Van Deventer, president of the Duncan Cowichan Chamber of Commerce and a director at the BC Chamber of Commerce, said the issue was discussed at the BC Chamber’s AGM and policy convention recently and, after much debate, the chamber’s position of ending the patchwork approach to the adoption of the B.C. carbon step code was upheld.
He urged council to support Findlay’s motion.
“When the step code was introduced, the province provided municipalities with the discretion to set the standards in their own communities and this resulted in a fractured and inconsistent regulatory landscape across the province with 29 municipalities dotted across B.C. having adopted it at some level or another, with none of them at the same level,” Van Deventer said.
Coun. Chris Istace agreed there is a patchwork across the province, but noted that from Qualicum south on Vancouver Island, most local governments are in lock step with EL-4.
Findlay said there are very real concerns about BC Hydro’s capacity to provide enough electricity for the full implementation of the zero-carbon step code program.
He said the province, which is still at EL-1, has the expertise to properly implement the program in B.C., not North Cowichan council members, staff nor any amateur climatologist in the council gallery.
Coun. Mike Caljouw said he believes it should come down to a choice of how people want to build, and they should able to make that choice themselves.
“We shouldn’t be stepping forward on the step code, and we should stick to what the province has mandated,” he said.
Coun. Tek Manhas agreed that North Cowichan shouldn’t be so far ahead of what the province has mandated.
“I’ve been talking to builders and developers and they have expressed to me that this adds significant costs, and we don’t have enough electricity,” he said.
Mayor Rob Douglas said municipalities can’t solve the global climate crisis alone, but some responsibilities clearly lie within their jurisdiction.
He said that being at EL-4 enables North Cowichan to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new buildings, and aligns with the municipality’s goals of its climate action and energy plan and supports the province in achieving the objectives of Clean BC.
Findlay’s motion passed, with Istace and Douglas opposed.
