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By Angela Brown

Going green

North Battleford to apply for funding for green energy study

Jul 18, 2019 | 12:17 PM

North Battleford lawmakers hope to see a greener future by developing more projects to save energy.

That’s why they supported administration’s recommendation to apply for money from the Green Municipal Fund, through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), to use for a feasibility study to identify potential projects in North Battleford to make the city more energy efficient.

“There may be an opportunity to look at projects, that otherwise wouldn’t be available to us financially, while that window is there,” Mayor Ryan Bater said following council’s recent meeting.

“The one-time gas tax funding needs to be allocated before the end of March of next year, so we want to look at what opportunities exist,” Bater added. “We’ve talked about a number of ways of making the city more energy efficient.”

Dany Robidoux, director of non-profit firm Eco-West, gave a presentation to council about the initiative. Eco-West was contracted by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) to promote the green fund in Western Canada.

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Finance Director Steve Brown’s report said the city will receive an additional $800,000 in gas tax funding. The federal government doubled gas tax funding for municipalities to deal with infrastructure deficits in 2019. The estimated cost for a feasibility study would be between $60,000 to $90,000, with FCM funding covering 50 per cent of the cost.

Brown said one potential project to save energy and money could see solar energy used to light the wastewater treatment plant, as an example.

He said the city could use its federal gas tax funding to start some energy efficient projects in the future.

“It’s somebody else’s money that ultimately puts money back into our pockets,” Brown said of the green fund proposal. “We need it right now with our financial challenges.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW