Vancouver City Council is set to vote Wednesday—or possibly later this week—on a new, expanded resolution to rescind the community’s restrictions on natural gas heating.

It’s the latest in a series of attacks on Vancouver’s landmark ban on gas in new construction dating back to 2021.

“Here we go again. Vancouver’s Mayor [Ken] Sim is back with a new and improved strategy to reverse about six years of green building progress, and waste just as many years of industry investment in evolution and innovation,” Robert Pecora, director of building decarbonization at the Zero Emissions Innovation Centre (ZEIC), writes on LinkedIn. He said the “very far-reaching motion” would:

• Pause energy and emissions reporting for large buildings, even though 98% of eligible buildings are already reporting;

• Suspend emissions limits for large commercial buildings, when more than 90% of them are already operating below the limits;

• Instruct city staff to begin repealing Vancouver’s limit on gas-fired water heaters in homes, which was due to take effect January and was developed with industry input;

• Direct staff to align Vancouver’s energy requirements for new buildings with a weaker provincial standard, and its emissions targets with “non-existent” provincial limits.

“With this lightning move, we are reminded that the inevitable transition to a clean, low-carbon economy is a turbulent one that can be a struggle for the building industry to navigate,” Pecora added. “Rest assured though, IT IS inevitable.”

In his previous attempt to undercut the ban in 2024, Sim moved to restore natural gas space and hot water heating as an available option for new homes. In that round, he introduced his motion “on the fly”, in the words of one city councillor, then “Zoomed in” from his vacation to cast the deciding vote in a 6-5 decision, The Energy Mix reported at the time.

Sim’s motion was rolled back months later, after two days of deliberations and input from more than 140 local residents.

The latest motion [pdf], published on the Wednesday before the Victoria Day long weekend, goes much further. In addition to new housing, it targets:

• The city’s Building By-law, which mandates and offers incentives for energy and water efficiency improvements when existing one- to three-storey homes are renovated; and

• Energize Vancouver, a voluntary initiative that helps current owners of larger commercial and multi-family buildings reduce their carbon pollution.

Sim frames the measure as an effort to boost affordability and align Vancouver’s building standards with the rest of British Columbia. The resolution asserts that “even modest percentage increases in construction costs can translate into significant increases in rents and home prices,” but makes no mention of the massive, continuing cost savings Vancouver households and benefits would see by switching their heating from natural gas to heat pumps.

In the motion, the mayor maintains that “stakeholders in business and labour and the plumbing, heating, and cooling industries have clearly identified that limiting options for water heating will increase costs to residents and hurt affordability.” But Pecora said that’s not what the local business industry has saying, and it doesn’t reflect what they’ve been doing.

“In November 2024, the building industry was clear with Vancouver City Council: hold steady on energy and emissions requirements for new builds. Builders had invested in better practices and found ways to deliver better buildings more cost-competitively,” Pecora told The Mix in an email.

In the roughly 18 months since, rents have fallen and sale prices for condos, townhouses, and detached homes are down by 3-8%, and “Vancouver has maintained its own energy and emissions requirements, showing that these policies are not materially impacting housing affordability.” In the commercial sector, the 90%+ of buildings that are complying with the Energize Vancouver targets are “finding meaningful ways to save energy that improve their net operating income. These businesses are cutting costs and carbon—a win-win situation.”

But councillors may be in for another round of multi-day hearings before the get to vote on Sim’s latest resolution. Despite the holiday weekend timing, the community response to the resolution has been “overwhelming,” said Stand.earth climate campaigner Sunil Singal.

“We found out on Wednesday evening that this was coming, and we notified our community on Saturday morning,” he said. “We’ve heard so far that there may be more than 100 people registered to speak.”

“I don’t know how else to say it, but people are really pissed off,” Singal told The Mix. “They thought this issue was settled. Council agreed that this was an issue that was important to the city, and that they wouldn’t touch the gas ban. And now we’re here again, seemingly out of nowhere, trying to pass it on the long weekend. Hoping, I guess, that people wouldn’t notice.”

If the resolution passes, the end result will “make taxpayers’ lives more expensive,” while reducing indoor air quality and making it harder for Vancouverites to cool their homes in the summer heat, Singal said. With local elections just five months away, he added, the resolution might not be the best career move for sitting councillors.

“I would say it’s a politically destructive move,” Singal said. Alongside concerned community members, “businesses and builders we’ve spoken with are also frustrated. From the builders that we spoke with, they’re saying that they need regulatory consistency and they need certainty.”

Pecora mentioned separately that “regulatory certainty is fundamental,” adding that “our building industry is competent and has risen to the challenge” of bringing down emissions while reducing operating costs.