Yellowknife city councillors are not sold on a proposal to remove soon-to-be obsolete energy-efficiency guidelines without interim rules.
Avery Zingel/NNSL photo
The proposal to remove the EnerGuide rating system from city bylaws was presented to council Monday by city planners. It was met with concern by councillors because it would leave a regulatory gap for the upcoming building season.
Natural Resources Canada is phasing out the EnerGuide rating system. In response, the city could remove the old guidelines from city bylaws until they are updated, said Sheila Bassi-Kellett, the city's senior administrator.
Not doing so would add, “confusion,” to the transition, she said.
Councillors Niels Konge and Rebecca Alty questioned the proposal.
“Do we want to have a regulatory gap?” said Alty.
Councillors asked for more information from city planners about what guidelines, if any, builders would have to follow if the bylaw was scrapped.
Some construction companies have invested around $1-million to adhere to the old guidelines, said Konge, adding that he would not support the proposal in its current form.
“Totally dropping energy guidelines,” could leave a regulatory gap that would open the Yellowknife housing market to new buildings that are energy inefficient, poorly insulated and “substandard,” said Konge.
Homes built according to the EnerGuide rules, which were implemented in 2010, are 30 per cent more energy efficient, he said.
“What does that tell me? It tells me that it worked,” said Konge.
This year, city planners will be conducting an overhaul to building codes to bring city bylaws in line with the National Building Code, said the city's director of planning Nalini Naidoo.