CaGBC submits federal pre-budget recommendations
August 11, 2020 | By HPAC Magazine
The three areas of focus include: support for low-carbon training and workforce development, stimulating retrofit projects, and promoting zero carbon building construction.
The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) has sent in formal submission to the Government of Canada offering three recommendations for to consider as it begins the pre-budget process for next year. The recommendations include: support for low-carbon training and workforce development, stimulating retrofit projects, and promoting zero carbon building construction.
Anticipating that the country will turn to construction and infrastructure projects to re-ignite the economy following the current global health crisis, CaGBC is encouraging the federal government to invest in low-carbon construction to meet the country’s business needs and meet its climate goal of reducing emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030.
Highlights from the CaGBC recommendations include:
- Allocating up to $1000/employee or $500 million to enable access to existing low-carbon training programs, and investing a further $1 billion for workforce development and training to grow Canada’s low-carbon workforce.
- Allocate $50 million to stimulate the development of shovel-worthy projects through 0% financing of energy audits (e.g., ASHRAE Level 2 and 3).
- Support the bundling of retrofit project investments into non-investment grade green bonds.
- Leverage government procurement power by requiring all federally-owned or federally-funded provincial and municipal retrofit projects to accelerate capital improvement plans that prioritize emission reductions.
- Require all federally-funded, owned, or leased new building projects and existing buildings to move towards zero carbon, along with any infrastructure funding for municipalities. Government leadership would de-risk zero carbon building for broader adoption and bring down capital cost premiums.
Visit CaGBC for the complete report.