helps<\/a> current owners of larger commercial and multi-family buildings reduce their carbon pollution.<\/p>\nSim frames the measure as an effort to boost affordability and align Vancouver\u2019s building standards with the rest of British Columbia. The resolution asserts that \u201ceven modest percentage increases in construction costs can translate into significant increases in rents and home prices,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
In the motion, the mayor maintains that \u201cstakeholders 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.\u201d But Pecora said that\u2019s not what the local business industry has saying, and it doesn\u2019t reflect what they\u2019ve been doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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,\u201d Pecora told The Mix in an email.<\/p>\n
In the roughly 18 months since, rents have fallen and sale prices for condos, townhouses, and detached homes are down by 3-8%, and \u201cVancouver has maintained its own energy and emissions requirements, showing that these policies are not materially impacting housing affordability.\u201d In the commercial sector, the 90%+ of buildings that are complying with the Energize Vancouver targets are \u201cfinding meaningful ways to save energy that improve their net operating income. These businesses are cutting costs and carbon\u2014a win-win situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
But councillors may be in for another round of multi-day hearings before the get to vote on Sim\u2019s latest resolution. Despite the holiday weekend timing, the community response to the resolution has been \u201coverwhelming,\u201d said Stand.earth climate campaigner Sunil Singal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found out on Wednesday evening that this was coming, and we notified our community on Saturday morning,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard so far that there may be more than 100 people registered to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how else to say it, but people are really pissed off,\u201d Singal told The Mix. \u201cThey thought this issue was settled. Council agreed that this was an issue that was important to the city, and that they wouldn\u2019t touch the gas ban. And now we\u2019re here again, seemingly out of nowhere, trying to pass it on the long weekend. Hoping, I guess, that people wouldn\u2019t notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the resolution passes, the end result will \u201cmake taxpayers\u2019 lives more expensive,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say it\u2019s a politically destructive move,\u201d Singal said. Alongside concerned community members, \u201cbusinesses and builders we\u2019ve spoken with are also frustrated. From the builders that we spoke with, they\u2019re saying that they need regulatory consistency and they need certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pecora mentioned separately that \u201cregulatory certainty is fundamental,\u201d adding that \u201cour building industry is competent and has risen to the challenge\u201d of bringing down emissions while reducing operating costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vancouver City Council is set to vote Wednesday\u2014or possibly later this week\u2014on a new, expanded resolution to rescind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[181133,49,48,45068,250102,55],"class_list":["post-681526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-byline-internal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dow","tag-scf","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}