Local governments across Canada are leading the charge on greening homes

Something amazing is happening in Canada: Local governments are leading the charge on climate action – and it’s going to have a massive impact.

Communities are taking matters into their own hands by tackling the rising emissions from one of the biggest culprits – buildings. In Canada, buildings are the third largest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accounting for a whopping 13% of the country’s total pollution.

The reason buildings are so polluting is because most of them use “natural” gas (more accurately: fossil gas) or oil to heat the air and water. Our innocent-looking furnaces? They use and burn fossil fuels to heat our indoor spaces, releasing carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.

Unfortunately, federal and provincial building codes are very weak, allowing for the expansion of fossil fuel use in new buildings.

This at a time when we have safer alternatives like electric heat pumps – which can provide super efficient heating and cooling, and lower monthly energy bills!

Fortunately, local governments are stepping up to end gas expansion in new buildings by introducing strong climate-friendly building policies that encourage, and often require, new buildings to have strict greenhouse gas emission limits or to have heating and cooling systems be emissions-free.

Here’s a look at the growing local movement to rein in emissions from buildings in British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario:

British Columbia:

The Zero Carbon Step Code is a provincial B.C. Building Code standard introduced in May 2023. The standard provides a pathway for local governments to pass ground-breaking policies that dramatically reduce climate pollution from new buildings. Since being introduced, a surge of communities across B.C. have jumped into action by requiring limits to greenhouse gas emissions from new buildings – many of them requiring new buildings to be zero carbon by no later than 2025 (five years ahead of the 2030 provincial requirement). This zero carbon requirement often leads to using heating and cooling systems that are highly efficient – like electric heat pumps – instead of inefficient polluting fossil gas furnaces, which can only provide heating.

Despite gas industry representatives showing up at council meetings to delay climate progress, like in Nanaimo, approximately 30 communities across B.C. have already stepped up with modernizing their building policies, with many more soon to join!

Quebec:

In Quebec, the City of Montreal and the smaller communities of Prévost, Candiac, and Mont-Saint-Hilaire were first to pass building bylaws to prevent the use of polluting gas systems in new buildings. The community of Prévost – first to adopt such a policy – was sued by Quebec’s gas distributor Énergir in its attempt to make an example out of the community and deter other municipalities from introducing climate-friendly building policies. Énergir and Prévost settled out of court and the city agreed to require all fossil fuel heating equipment in existing buildings that eventually need replacing to use dual-fuel systems which can include both electricity as well as 100% Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) (though, we know RNG is a false solution). Despite this legal challenge, other communities across Quebec were undeterred in their steps towards building decarbonization.

In April 2024, the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM) took ambitious climate action by voting to end the installation of fossil fuel heating systems in new buildings. The metropolitan area, which represents 82 municipalities and covers over half of Quebec’s population, passed a resolution to modernize their building bylaws requiring new builds use non-fossil fuel heating systems (though an exception was made for buildings larger than three storeys, which are permitted to use RNG).

Unlike B.C., which has a voluntary provincial standard for local governments to reduce emissions from new buildings, municipalities in Quebec have set a precedent by leading on building decarbonization without a provincial model in place (like the B.C. Zero Carbon Step Code). As an added bonus, Quebec’s communities are showing that building electrification is more than achievable in colder-climate communities in Canada despite the gas industry’s misinformation.

Ontario:

In Ontario, Toronto has adopted the Toronto Green Standard – a Green Development Standard (GDS) which, among other things, sets the stage for limiting gas use in new buildings. The policy does so by setting mandatory Greenhouse Gas Intensity (GHGI) limits that in the coming years will be low enough to exclude the use of gas for heating.

Another 13 municipalities have also adopted GDS in Ontario but most either do not have GHGI limits, or they are not low enough, or they are not mandatory. It is very important for these communities to strengthen their policies and implement increasingly stringent requirements for the near future to ensure that community-wide emissions do not rise.

Let’s build a greener future

Despite the gas industry pushing back to delay climate action, local governments are spearheading building electrification to ensure new homes are built with safety, health, and climate in mind – all the while making sure that people can affordably cool and heat their homes.

There’s growing momentum across Canada to end gas expansion in buildings to significantly reduce emissions and meet their community’s climate targets. Join us in encouraging local leaders to get on board and make a difference from the bottom-up!