This article was published by The Energy Mix on Nov. 26, 2024.
By Tova Gaster
Vancouver City Council is scheduled to vote November 26 on whether to move forward with reinstating gas access in new buildings—after reversing a ban on it earlier this year.
Council voted 6-5 in July to rescind the city’s 2020 city bylaw banning gas hookups in new low-rise buildings by 2025, with Mayor Ken Sim breaking the tie.
A coalition of construction industry leaders, environmental advocates, small businesses, and medical professionals opposed the walkback of one of the city’s flagship climate policies. The reversal followed “behind-the-scenes” discussions involving senior city officials with industry ties, reported Postmedia, raising transparency and potential conflicts of interest concerns.
Advocates for the transition off gas say the reversal is a step backward from other Canadian jurisdictions like Quebec, which recently banned new gas heating in buildings by 2040.
“If we know we need to decarbonize society, why would we keep adding to the problem by building new buildings that we have to decarbonize later?” asked Paige Gorsak, an organizing manager at Dogwood BC.
Reinstating Gas Won’t Help Affordability: City Staff
On November 26, City Council will hear a staff report [pdf] containing plans for how Vancouver could allow gas while sticking with provincial green building and emissions requirements.
The report recommends offering builders and developers two paths: one that includes gas for heating, and another that allows gas but also requires enhanced energy efficiency through building envelope requirements. Both allow gas for cooking.
The staff report says the second option will not increase affordability, instead passing on future costs to retrofit buildings. It could also put Vancouver in violation of BC’s Zero Carbon Step Code, which establishes clean building standards that grow stronger over time, by 2026.
Gas Warms the Atmosphere, Pollutes Homes
Gas in buildings harms health and reduces air quality. Electric heating systems, such as heat pumps, are also equivalent in cost, on average, according to research from the Pembina Institute and Clean Energy Canada.
“It’s not only a climate issue, but a health and cost of living issue,” Sunil Singal, a campaigner at Stand.earth, told a Dogwood event.
Research suggests natural gas is just as harmful as other fossil fuels, if not worse. A new study finds that the greenhouse gas footprint of liquefied natural gas (LNG) can be up to 33% greater than that for coal.
While natural gas releases less climate pollution when it’s burned, fugitive methane leaks in gas extraction and transportation pack a huge atmospheric warming punch that 2023 research suggests is worse than previously thought.
Buildings are also often the biggest source of carbon emissions in cities like Toronto and Vancouver.
Lobbyists Turn Up The Heat, Local Businesses Respond
According to Dogwood BC’s Gorsak, rescinding the natural gas ban would make Vancouver the first city to reintroduce a known pollutant into homes.
But a Postmedia investigation found that the vote could be good business for Mayor Ken Sim’s senior advisor, who owns two private natural gas companies.
In an interview with CBC, Councillor Brian Montague attributed his support for the rollback to homebuilder choice, and reducing red tape to make increasing housing supply cheaper.
According to construction industry leaders, however, emissions requirements and heat pumps aren’t the culprit for expensive housing.
“Energy and emissions requirements are not significant drivers of new housing costs; many other factors affect project costs and timelines,” said Mark Bernhardt, CEO of Bernhardt Contracting and president of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of BC, in a release issued by Vancouver’s Zero Emissions Innovation Centre (ZEIC).
Rather, policy uncertainty—such as the ban reversal—increases costs for homebuilders.
Bernhardt is one of hundreds of homebuilders and small business owners who signed a letter in October calling on Vancouver to restore its gas ban. Dozens of construction industry leaders sent a similar letter.
“Burning fossil fuel in homes is like smoking—once considered normal, now clearly harmful to our health,” Chris Hill, Principal of B Collective Homes, said in the ZEIC release. “For the last over five years, we’ve built homes entirely free of gas or fossil fuels, demonstrating that electrification is not only possible but scalable. With thoughtful design and minimal effort, we can lead the way to healthier, all-electric homes that benefit both people and the planet.”
On November 26, City Council will hear proposals from city staff about the implications of the reversal, and cast another vote.
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