Energy savings
The consultant hired to act as the Sunshine Coast Regional District’s (SCRD) energy manager says the SCRD is beating its short-term targets for energy savings, and that’s helping out the bottom line.
Brian O’Donnell of Prism Engineering presented an update on the Strategic Energy Management Plan during the June 23 corporate and administrative services committee.
Between 2011 and 2015, he said, the SCRD reduced natural gas consumption by 50 per cent, and electricity use by eight per cent. According to O’Donnell, that means energy consumption is down 25 per cent overall. Those numbers are already below the targets set for 2018.
“The projects are saving what we projected, and the human side is saving even more,” O’Donnell explained, pointing to the success in getting staff involved in coming up with energy saving ideas and changing their habits.
The 2015 reductions in natural gas and electricity use translated to just over $166,000 in savings.
“We’ve been doing energy management here for a number of years. The so-called low hanging fruit has been addressed pretty well, and so we have to get more creative with how we further our energy savings,” O’Donnell said.
The SCRD plans to spend about $259,000 on initiatives like lighting retrofits at the Gibsons and Area Community Centre in 2016.
Future strategies include a fleet review to see how the SCRD could save energy through the vehicles it operates. Other ideas include using photovoltaic panels or other technologies to generate electricity.
Committee changes
The SCRD is poised to change its committee structure.
If a proposed amendment to the procedure bylaw goes through, the SCRD will go from four to three standing committees: planning and community development, infrastructure services, and corporate and administrative services.
Directors also voted June 23 to recommend changing the meetings for the transportation and policing advisory committees to quarterly.
The SCRD will also look at moving those meetings to Thursdays, which would match the timing of the other committee as well as the regular board meetings.
In a report on the changes SCRD staff said, “Decreasing the number of standing committees to three will result in overall cost savings and focus resources more efficiently.”
The recommendations are due to be ratified at the first full board meeting this month, with a September target for putting the changes in place.
Adult Basic Education
After hearing from representatives of the Capilano University Faculty Association (which also made presentations to Gibsons and Sechelt councils), the SCRD board has decided to send a resolution to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) calling for an end to tuition fees for the Adult Basic Education (ABE) program.
Recent provincial rule changes gave post-secondary institutions like Cap-U the option to charge tuition for ABE courses. The faculty association argues that tuition fees limit access and have led to dramatic enrolment declines that can hurt the viability of satellite campuses like Sechelt where a large proportion of students are in ABE courses.
The UBCM resolution reads: “Whereas the loss of funding for adult basic education programs has created financial barriers to learning and impedes individual and community economic and social progress; and whereas the public interest is served by eliminating barriers to education: Therefore, be it resolved that the UBCM strongly encourage the provincial government to reinstate funding to the post-secondary system to provide free adult basic education programs critical to the future prosperity of B.C. communities.”
