Mayor David Gillan speaking during a live announcement of North Battleford receiving $175 for a green energy project. (Facebook/FCM)

By battlefordsNOW Staff

Green energy

North Battleford receives $175,000 in funding for energy study

Mar 7, 2022 | 5:38 PM

The City of North Battleford will be receiving a major funding boost from the federal government for green energy.

Monday afternoon, the Canadian government and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) announced $2.1 million of investments from the Green Municipal Fund (GMF). North Battleford will receive $175,000 to conduct a study assessing the feasibility of various options for saving energy and generating renewable energy at municipal facilities. These include the Dekker Centre, the Co-op Aquatic Centre and Nations West Field House.

Natural Resources Minster Jonathan Wilkinson gave a statement prior to the press conference regarding the funding’s importance.

“Upgrading new and existing buildings to be more energy-efficient while also investing in clean infrastructure and sustainable practices will help us achieve our climate targets, ensure that Canadians save money on energy costs, and create good, middle-class, jobs,” he said. “The Government of Canada is pleased to announce this investment — one that will boost resiliency and ensure a healthy environment and sustainable economy in communities across Saskatchewan.”

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Daniel Vandal, Minister Responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, spoke to how North Battleford will benefit from new efficiencies during a press conference on Monday.

“[They’ll have] ways to take advantage of that efficiency by generating new sources of clean energy,” he said.

Mayor David Gillan of North Battleford spoke during the live stream to the importance of the study on five key facilities. The city is looking at substituting some of the key energy needs with green initiatives.

“We were able to have experts to do an immediate review of our facilities and have already received a report on biomass, energy production, wood chips and more,” he said.

A number of items are still under analyzation, including the value of investment in solar panels which Gillan said is promising.

“When you’re talking about just the solar panels alone, I think it’s in the neighbourhood of 20 per cent saving just on electricity per year, with a 15 year payback,” he said. “We’re not talking five years, but we’re not talking 50 years either.”

Some other immediate benefits of the funds is moving forward on other potential projects. Gillan noted that this provided a shovel-ready engineering report to apply for solar panels through capital grants.

“That’s in progress as we speak today,” he said.

The rest of the $2.1 million went to the Town of Oxbow and the City of Yorkton.

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cjnbnews@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW