The District of Central Saanich has been granted $125,000 in funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to fund a term staff position to support the District’s climate action strategy. Central Saanich is one of just two British Columbia communities benefitting from this initiative.
The Climate Action Specialist will focus on efforts to help reduce the municipality’s emissions—the two largest sources being transportation and buildings. The district is targeting an 80% reduction in community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 relative to 2007 and 100% renewable energy community-wide by 2050. For its own operations, the municipality is seeking 90% less emissions from municipal operations by 2050, relative to 2007.
Upcoming projects include a net-zero solar power demonstration project at Fire Station #1, replacing the light duty fleet of vehicles with electric and installing more public electric vehicle chargers, improving building energy efficiency and the amount of retrofits in the District, and much more.
“As a small community, the addition of a dedicated staff member is an incredible asset as we tackle this important work,” says Mayor Ryan Windsor. “Local governments are uniquely positioned to work closely with residents and businesses, as well as other levels of governments, and I’m very excited about the progress Central Saanich is making.”
The climate change staff grants are offered through the Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program (MCIP) delivered by FCM and funded by the Government of Canada.
For more information on Central Saanich’s climate action initiatives, please see letstalkcentralsaanich.ca/climateaction.
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