Exploring community energy financing for the Regional District of Mount Waddington

The Regional District of Mount Waddington encompasses more than two million hectares on the northern end of Vancouver Island, the adjacent Broughton Archipelago and the southern central coast of British Columbia. It includes four municipalities, six non-incorporated settler communities, and many Indigenous nations, including Quatsino First Nation, Kwakiutl First Nation, 'Namgis First Nation and Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw Nations. The district has partnered with non-profit consultant Ecotrust Canada to undertake initiatives to improve household energy efficiency and alleviate energy poverty in the region. One of these initiatives is to study the potential for a community efficiency financing program in the district. This initiative aligns with the district’s commitment to reducing community greenhouse gas emissions as a signatory to the 2011 B.C. Climate Action Charter. It is also supported by a 2019 Residential Energy and Heating Analysis completed by Ecotrust Canada, which revealed that household spending on heating in the district was 47% greater than the provincial average, and that one-third of residents are challenged to pay their home energy bills. Ecotrust also found a high level of interest in efficiency retrofits to reduce household energy costs, but 79% of residents identified barriers such as limited financing, lack of program awareness, and limited local capacity and expertise to complete energy retrofits. The envisioned program would aim to provide public education, local capacity-building, energy cost reductions and financing support for homeowners. The study would be led by Ecotrust and aims to conduct a baseline assessment of the housing stock, energy upgrade potential, regional opportunities and regulations; and evaluate Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), utility on-bill and third-party financing options. Early estimates indicate that a $10 million investment would support 725 retrofits (15% of the district’s single-detached homes). Projected uptake and benefits will be refined as part of the study, but Ecotrust currently estimates that the program would achieve greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 820 tCO2e per year (a 78% reduction per household) and energy savings of 27,146 GJ per year (a 50% reduction per household). Economic and social benefits include energy cost savings, local job creation, improved home comfort, better air quality from decreased particulate matter and emissions from oil and wood heating, and reduced energy poverty. Innovative aspect(s): · As a collaborative, district-wide initiative that aims to serve a small population that is geographically disbursed across small rural and Indigenous communities, both the program’s structure and its administrative benefits could provide valuable lessons for other regions across Canada · As an initiative that seeks to engage and partner with Indigenous nations and municipalities, the study may be a valuable model for other communities across Canada seeking to be more inclusive and advance relationships with Indigenous nations · The study will consider unique local conditions (specifically high levels of energy poverty and current limitations of the province’s policy and regulatory framework), which means the results could be valuable to other municipalities in British Columbia exploring community efficiency financing programs Replicability: · The results of this study will likely provide valuable information to municipalities across the province on three different financing models (PACE, utility-on bill, and third-party lending) that have been limited in British Columbia to date · Ecotrust Canada will publish the final study online and seek to deliver a presentation on the outcomes and lessons learned at annual conferences held by FCM, the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, the Assembly of First Nations in B.C., and others (Project description from original funding application)