City hall will hire a consultant to create a climate action plan and apply for related federal and provincial funding since no one in-house has the skills to complete these tasks.
The action plan would focus on reducing the environmental effect that city-owned and -operated buildings, parks and vehicles have and set targets to slash emissions, achieve cost savings through decreased energy consumption — electrical, natural gas and water use — and attempt to keep life affordable.
The consultant would provide a data-driven, economic-based plan with utility savings and carbon emission reduction opportunities that can be regularly identified and prioritized, a city council report explained. The consultant would also provide permanent data monitoring systems, so energy efficiency and low-carbon generation results are accurately measured and verified.
“The city will become a municipal leader in environmental responsibility in reducing its carbon footprint and do so in a practical manner by generally funding these initiatives through reduced operating costs and increased federal grants … ,” the report said. “The plan … will also create templates allowing all residents, business owners and institutions to contribute to the city’s overall climate action strategy.”
The climate action plan will be developed in conjunction with the municipality’s solar initiative. This project will see several city-owned buildings receive dozens of solar panels to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 337 tonnes per year and provide $45,000 per year in electricity savings.
During the May 25 regular council meeting, council voted 6-1 to allocate $26,500 from the facilities building reserve to hire a consultant to complete these tasks.
Coun. Dawn Luhning was opposed.
The facilities building reserve currently has $336,800, but by the end of 2021, it is expected to be $238,800.
Council discussion
“I’m all for making sure we can be efficient in our buildings, but I do not believe we need to spend $25,000 to find a consultant — somebody out there — who knows better about what we should be doing in our own facilities,” Luhning said.
“I’ve had issues with this over the years. I don’t believe we need to be paying consultants to do reports all the time. We pay good money with the staff we have and should be able to resource references to know what we need to do to retrofit these buildings if we need to.
“I just don’t think, in the pandemic that we’re in, that we have $26,500 to spend on a consultant at this time,” she added.
This work is complicated and beyond the expertise of anyone at city hall, which is why city administration is paying for this using the facilities building reserve since that is money for these types of projects, said city manager Jim Puffalt. For example, city hall hired a consultant to write a funding application for the solar panels initiative.
The cost of this project will be firm because city administration has done research on this topic and believes three or four companies can support it, he added.
With the money being spent on hiring a consultant, Coun. Kim Robinson wondered how long it would take to pay for this initiative and whether city administration planned to come back to say if the money had been recovered.
“It will be difficult to quantify what savings will be,” said Derek Blais, director of parks and recreation.
However, if city hall looks to a study that the City of Melfort conducted, Moose Jaw could see savings right away in annual utility costs, he continued. If city hall can find and monitor “the little things,” those savings across 11 buildings could add up to $26,500. The project could also pay for itself if Moose Jaw successfully acquired grant funding of $1 million to $2 million.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, June 14.
