BY GREG SAKAKI
The City of Nanaimo now has a building bylaw in place that will limit natural gas in new home construction starting next year.
City council, at a meeting Monday, Oct. 16, voted 5-4 to amend its building bylaw to mandate that new homes must meet highest-level requirements of the provincial zero carbon step code starting July 1. The code will be applied provincewide in 2030, but Nanaimo will make the move six years ahead of that schedule.
The step code performance requirements do not specify energy sources, but experts on both sides of the debate at council meetings in recent months indicated the move will effectively eliminate natural gas as a primary heat source in new residential builds. Natural gas hookups will still be permitted for backup and secondary heat sources such as gas fireplaces.
Mayor Leonard Krog, who was absent during third reading of the bylaw, registered his opposition at this week’s meeting to accelerating adoption of the zero carbon step code, saying he doesn’t think it’s appropriate for the city to try to get ahead of the province’s timelines.
He said the City of Saanich, with a population 20-30 per cent greater than Nanaimo, has fewer residential gas connections and about half the number of commercial gas connections.
“Which tells me quite simply that this community supports the use of natural gas and I think there are times when you support what your community has demonstrated are their views on this subject,” Krog said.
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Coun. Tyler Brown took the opportunity to apologize for a “flippant comment” he made at third reading, when he said it was the easiest decision in the world to vote to accelerate compliance with the zero carbon step code.
“I understand that these decisions do have very real-world impacts for people,” he said.
He wasn’t changing his vote, however, nor did any other council members. Coun. Ben Geselbracht said the building bylaw amendment is a small step, but a symbolic one.
“We set emissions targets n 2010 and we have actually increased our emissions since then; it’s even increased quicker than population growth. And it is from an increasing move to switch to natural gas,” he said. “I think if we are going to take our fair share of responsibility in reducing our emissions, then we have to implement something like this at the very least to stop adding new emissions to meet the targets.”
Krog and councillors Janice Perrino, Ian Thorpe and Sheryl Armstrong voted against adopting the bylaw to amend the building bylaw.
READ ALSO: Council vote means natural gas won’t be used to heat new homes in Nanaimo