Canada’s most ambitious municipal climate plan appears as a modest, one-line entry on my property tax bill: “Climate Action: $42.16.”

The funds represented by that line, multiplied over properties across the municipality, fund HalifACT, a roadmap to making Halifax a net-zero economy by 2050.

Unlike some climate plans, which seem to be primarily aspirational, HalifACT includes short-term, achievable goals, including electrifying city vehicle fleets, and a commitment to “developing, adopting, and applying a standard for net-zero new construction” for municipal facilities.

Kevin Boutilier, Halifax’s manager for clean energy, says every new municipal building and major renovation — including the Beechville Lakeside Timberlea Community Centre, currently under construction and slated to open in 2025 — has to meet that net-zero standard.

“What that entails is first getting as much passive solar as you can. In terms of the envelope, is it airtight? That way your mechanical systems can be much smaller, and in a lot of cases we can just electrify them, then slap solar on the roof,” Boutilier says.

He notes that for buildings like the BLT centre and the new Halifax Regional Fire Emergency headquarters (designed by Architecture 49), going net-zero doesn’t just make climate sense, it also lowers long-term operating costs.

“As a municipality, we have the benefit of considering that,” he says. “We can spend a little bit more money on a building that will use a lot less energy for the 50 years [of its life], and we see the benefit,” he says.

The trouble is, getting to net zero across the municipality is going to take a lot more than what the current HalifACT team can deliver, as Boutilier admits.

“We’re not on track,” he says. “There are so many competing priorities within the organization and other levels of government...We’ve got about 30 people on staff pushing these programs but it’s still not enough. The housing crisis is certainly taking centre stage. So it’s just competing priorities. It makes it tough.”

Chris Benjamin, senior energy coordinator with the Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre agrees that “the plan is excellent,” and he says staff “are legitimately following through... They're actually doing all they can with it.”

While Benjamin agrees that net-zero targets for buildings are a positive step, he is concerned by the disconnect between the municipality’s climate and planning arms, and the sheer number of inefficient buildings being built by private developers.

“It makes no sense to build a building that is not energy efficient, and that you're going to have to live with for 50 years during a climate crisis, with flooding and wildfires and whatnot every summer,” he says. And while energy efficiency lowers operating costs over the long term, “If you’re building to sell, that kind of goes out the window.”

The most recent HalifACT progress report highlights several climate adaptation and mitigation measures, including ordering 60 electric buses, and progress towards a municipal deep energy retrofit program. It also celebrates a 22.7 per cent drop in municipal emissions since 2016 (excluding emissions from public transit and waste collection). But no matter how good the municipal plan is, Benjamin notes that the city can’t control factors like building codes, which could mandate greater efficiency.

In May 2024, Halifax urged the provincial government to adopt what is known as the 2020 federal building code, which would phase in greater energy efficiency standards over several years. A report from the city’s environment and sustainability committee at the time noted that failure to adopt the code “poses a significant obstacle in realizing [the] HalifACT targets.”

Four months later, the provincial government announced it would be adopting the code, effective April 1, 2025. A media release from the provincial department of municipal affairs and housing describes the new code as “a tiered system that will provide a road map to increasing energy efficiency standards and help to move the industry towards net-zero construction.” It will be phased in over four years.

Overall, Boutilier is proud of what HalifACT has accomplished in just a few years (HalifACT is one of the most ambitious climate plans in Canada, developed through deep engagement across HRM) but he also worries that implementation of the plan is “at risk” — and that’s before any changes a soon to be new mayor and council might bring.

“Many actions are progressing, but not at the pace and scale necessary to meet the science-based targets,” Boutlier says. “Externally, we've got regulatory limitations and a need for more collaboration with other levels of government. The supply chain, when it comes to EVs, is certainly an issue, as is our workforce, because there are not enough energy modellers or energy designers for a lot of our buildings. So those are some of the barriers that we are working to overcome.”

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Added to the Climate Story Network website: October 17, 2024

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