By Cecilia Nasmith
A vote at Monday's committee-of-the-whole meeting of council supported the Community Climate Action Plan as a vision statement, potentially clearing the way to grants that could support energy-efficient retrofits for home owners who might otherwise be unable to afford them.
The process was explained to council by Northumberland's environmental officer Judy Smith.
The climate plan identifies two major measures that could make the most difference – electrification of transportation and retrofitting existing housing stock.
She listed the organizations behind both measures, including the Northumberland Help and Legal Centre, Sustainable Cobourg, Blue Dot, the Electrical Vehicle Society of Northumberland and Community Power Northumberland.
“We have an opportunity to avail ourselves of funding provided by the Federal government – and it's happening around the world – for major retrofit projects,” Smith said.
“My motion is to consider the Community Climate Action Plan as a visionary document that lays out the path we have to go to the future, but it doesn't lay out all the details yet.
“There's a need still for more definition in terms of how to deliver these programs,” she allowed.
“On retrofitting, we have an opportunity with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities - which has received over $1-billion for work on retrofits – to submit an application for Community Efficiency financing.”
This would cover 80% of the cost of a feasibility study on financing neighbourhood-level retrofits.
“The focus here in Cobourg would be on low-income residents, because they are the group within the community that would have the most difficulty obtaining loans for retrofits.”
Another benefit she noted is the number of jobs this work would create. The group working on applying for this funding – which includes town and county staff – are including local labour unions on the initiative, along with Durham College (which offers high-performance construction programs).
Support for the climate-action plan is a prerequisite for that funding, Smith said.
Councillor Adam Bureau made the motion to provide approval in principle for the document as a vision document.
