Halifax looking to retrofit buildings to meet climate goals

The Halifax region wants to offer a retrofit program to help reduce energy consumption by 50 per cent.

It would be modelled after the municipality's successfulSolar City program.

To date, 553 properties have installed solar panels financed through the Halifax Regional Municipality.

The new retrofit program would deal with window replacements, increased insulation, improved efficiency for heating and cooling systems, as well as switching to fuels that are less carbon intensive.

The program is needed to help Halifax meet its climate change targets.

"Buildings account for 70 per centof our greenhouse gas emissions," said Taylor Owen, a climate change specialist with HRM's environment department.

"So we need to retrofit 5,000 residential properties a year over the next 20 years."

Commercial buildings eligible

Unlike the Solar City program, which is only available to homeowners and non-profit groups, municipal officials want the retrofit program to apply to the region's 50,000 commercial buildings. They are considering third-party financing for commercial property owners.

A proposal endorsed by the environment committeeWednesday involves the creation of a pilot project and a navigatorto help people who want to take part.

The initial costs would be $3.5 million, which would be recovered from the property owners.

Coun.Sam Austin said it's critical the municipality encourages people to make these energy retrofits.

"If anyone doubts the urgency, we just need to go back and look at Exhibit A from last week where literally hundreds of people have died in B.C. from the heat wave," said Austin.

The program still needs approval from regional council before it can go ahead.

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