The Community Energy Association (CEA) – a 29-year-old non-profit that promotes efforts to reduce emissions – recently presented awards to six Greater Victoria districts and municipalities for their local climate initiatives.
Delegations from the South Island received the awards on Sept. 18 at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver – an annual event that brings together districts, municipalities and First Nations leaders to identify common policy concerns and engage with other orders of government.
Victoria and Saanich each received an award for their tax exemption program, which encourages people to switch from fossil fuel-powered space heating and hot-water systems to electric ones.
"Upgrading our rental stock through low-carbon retrofits helps extend the life of these buildings for the people who live there, and, in many cases, will benefit renters by providing access to summer cooling," Saanich's mayor Dean Murdock said in a May news release. “This is an investment in meaningful climate action and in improving housing for renters."
Saanich and Victoria each received another award, along with Langford, Oak Bay, Sidney and the CRD, for their Extreme Heat Information Portal – an online map that displays areas in Greater Victoria vulnerable to extreme heat.
"This portal will certainly support emergency preparedness and risk assessments for extreme heat," said the CEA in a new release. "The approach taken can also be used to communicate other climate hazards. If coupled with investments in policies, programs and infrastructure, this project could truly enable reduced risk for vulnerable populations and improved building energy performance.”
For more information about the awards, visit: visit: https://www.communityenergy.ca/climate-energy-action-awards/#crd-portal.
