Saskatoon has a target to reduce corporate and greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. City Councillor Mairin Loewen is on the Environment, Utilities and Corporate Services Committee and she believes the goal is realistic. Recently, the City of Regina announced its intention to utilize 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050. Loewen congratulates Regina and hopes the two cities will be able to work together to achieve their targets. She believes both are realistic if they are resourced properly.
Loewen suggests more solar power may be a part of the solution, because she feels it is under utilized in an area that receives so much sunlight. A climate change mitigation business plan will be presented Tuesday morning to the Environment, Utilities and Corporate Services committee. You can see the report below. Funding may be an issue. The Saskatoon Environmental Advisory Committee report says Saskatoon Light & Power’s long term goal is to provide 10 per cent of its electricity from renewables, but Director Trevor Bell says capital funding is a constraint. The report also indicates Saskatoon spends three times the amount per current user on emission-producing transportation versus active transportation like walking or cycling.
SPC on Environment, Utilities & Corporate Services
Dear Committee Members:
RE: Capital Decisions When Considering Environmental Issues
One of Saskatoon Environmental Advisory Committee s (SEAC) 2018 goals is to support Saskatoon City Council (Council) to meet the approved community-wide environmental targets, including an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Achieving this target will be no small task, and it will take substantial leadership from Council, Administration, and public organizations to work together to achieve this goal. In addition, substantial resources, in particular capital, will be required to implement substantial changes to the way the City operates, the services it provides, and the infrastructure which supports residents. SEAC is writing this letter to communicate our concern about how decision-making, in particular capital decisions could be made when considering environmental issues.
At the October 11, 2018 SEAC meeting, Director of Saskatoon Light & Power (SL&P) Trevor Bell presented the mandate and environmental strategy for SL&P. SEAC noted that while SL&P has a long-term goal to provide 10% of the electricity from renewables, the current plan does not include enough initiatives to achieve this goal. When asked what barriers SL&P faces, Mr. Bell commented that resources, in particular capital, were a constraint to meeting or exceeding this goal. This is a concern to SEAC because SL&P has a unique position as a municipal service-provider to promote the importance of energy efficiency to achieving GHG reduction targets and the opportunity to continue to grow its rate of low emission generation (i.e. solar, wind, hydro).
In addition, SEAC has previously expressed support for a number of City of Saskatoon initiatives; however, these have often been delayed, many times due to funding or resource unavailability. These include Bus Rapid Transit, Active Transportation infrastructure, Recovery Park, and a waste utility incentivizing waste reduction (PAYT). We are concerned that the delays associated with investment in these critical initiatives are due to the lack of a funding and decision-making mechanism that values the environment.
SEAC recognizes that there are limitations on funding of initiatives. However, we are concerned that the city has no mechanism to prioritize low-emitting or high-reduction opportunities that have less favorable financial impacts compared to non-environmental options (i.e. low net present value, high capital cost, low operating cost reduction, or long payback). Our concerns were confirmed by the August 2018 PWC audit report, City of Saskatoon CO2 Reduction Initiatives Report. In particular, this report found that the City requires some fundamental tools to support strategic decision making and suggests implementing a Marginal Cost Abatement Curve. This is a simple way for residents to see the cost effectiveness of implementing strategies that result in savings and GHG reductions. Saskatoon may also wish to consider available accounting measures for both establishing a Green Fund to support the pending capital needs of mitigation and adaptation, and for accounting for the value of the environment in economic analysis (e.g. applying a dollar figure to GHG emissions in NPV analysis). Adopting formal accounting measures will better communicate of the value of the environment to Saskatoon residents, and support making economic trade-off decisions that value the environment.
The City of Vancouver has outlined a climate and people friendly decision-making process in its plan Transportation 20402. It states: when decisions about moving people are being made, the needs and safety of each group of road users are considered in priority order , the priority being (i) walking (ii) cycling (iii) transit (iv) taxi and ride-sharing, and (v) the private car.
Our preliminary analysis shows that the City of Saskatoon 2018 budget allocated $1.2M in capital to active transportation investment and improvement verses $43.9M to non-active transportation investment. Given that a total of 7.1% of Saskatoon commuters either walk (5.1%) or cycle (2.0%), active transportation is currently funded at a rate of $67/commuter vs. $181/commuter for non-active transportation. In other words, Saskatoon currently spends almost three times the amount per current user on emission-producing transportation vs. nonemission transportation, when in fact, the opposite is required! And this does not include operating budget!
In closing, the latest IPCC report, Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C4, highlighted the urgency required in order to limit long-lasting or irreversible global changes in climate, and that rapid and far-reaching transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities are required. The sustainable reduction of GHGs is one of the most urgent matters in all levels of governments, and therefore, projects addressing reduction of GHGs must receive prioritized and consistent funding. Any or all of these presented options for prioritizing funding may be applicable to the City of Saskatoon, particularly with the upcoming presentation of the Mitigation Plan and 2019 Budget deliberations. We urge Council to ensure you have a clear policy and mechanism for decision-making as it relates to environmental initiatives.
Sincerely,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Subcommittee,
Saskatoon Environmental Advisory Committee
