Regional District of Central Kootenay Board considers everything from carbon neutrality to medical grow ops
By Nelson Daily Staff
By Suzy Hamilton, The Nelson Daily
It looks like the Regional District of Central Kootenay will not meet its target to become carbon neutral by 2012, but staff are proposing another option to meet the goal in the near future.
As a participant in the Carbon Neutral Kootenays (CNK) project, the RDCK had set a goal of reducing GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions to 12 percent below 2008 levels by 2012.
Last October the board adopted a resolution to buy third party offsets up to $60,000 with other carbon neutral regional districts from the Nature Conservancy’s Darkwoods project for 2012, an April 26 RDCK staff report said.
But due to the Auditor General’s concerns with the Darkwoods Offset program, “it is the opinion of the CNK team that a purchase of Darkwoods offsets in the current environment could distract from the momentum and leadership that CNK local governments are demonstrating,” said the report’s author, RDCK environmental services coordinator Nicole Ward.
The Auditor General determined this spring that Darkwoods does not meet the criterion of a credible carbon project.
However, the Nature Conservancy disputed the claims of the Auditor General. “The Auditor General’s findings with regards to Darkwoods are factually incorrect and have been widely rejected by carbon industry experts, BC Minister of Environment Terry Lake, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and others,” the Nature Conservancy countered.
RDCK chair John Kettle said this leaves the board “half pregnant.”
“There’s no definitive decision on the Auditor General’s report, and we didn’t want to punish Darkwoods,” he said. The board is taking a wait and see position until the matter is decided, he said.
In the meantime, the RDCK will allocate $25 per tonne of emissions to a specific reserve fund to be invested in the implementation of corporate greenhouse gas reduction projects.
The intent of a reserve fund is to maintain progress on energy conservation and reduce carbon emissions.
Although this proposal does not meet the requirements set, it qualifies as “working towards carbon neutrality,” RDCK staff said.
Local governments will work with the CNK team to identify local community projects that will lead to GHG reductions in the future, while waiting for answers on Darkwoods.
Stop Smart Meters gets no support
In other RDCK news, the board was asked to take its concern over Smart Metres a step further. Stop Smart Meters (stopsmartmeters.ca) asked the board to support a Citizens Initiative Petition calling for an amendment to Section 17 of the BC Clean Energy Act to allow for an opt out provision for any BC Hydro customer without charge to the customer in the future or retroactively.
The RDCK is on record as having supported either a moratorium on the installation of BC Hydro wireless smart meters or an opt out provision for those not wanting them to be installed on their premises. According to a letter of April 15 from Stop Smart Meters, 59 councils have voted in favor or the petition, representing some 2.5 million British Columbians.
The board did not choose to support the Initiative, Chair Kettle said.
Kootenay Energy Diet to increase homeowner energy efficiency
Directors received a delegation from the Kootenay Energy Diet.
Based on the success of the Rossland Energy Diet pilot project, the Kootenay Energy Diet will promote energy efficiency and conservation to homeowners within the broader FortisBC service in the West Kootenay and Boundary regions.
The promotion is meant to overcome barriers to homeowners making energy efficiency improvements, and would include:
Reduced cost home energy assessments and access to LiveSmart and Fortis BC rebates; low interest financing through local credit unions; reduction of energy costs and thus a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Western Wildfire Conference sounds alarm
Forest management will be essential to keeping costs down in the future, the RDCK was told at the May 18 meeting.
“Although the number of fires has not increased, the impact of wildland fires is four times greater in terms of resources destroyed and costs to mitigate this destruction than it was in 1992,” RDCK fire Chief Terry Swan told the board in a report on his attendance to the Western Wildfire Conference in Kelowna in April.
Additionally, he learned that the intensity of wildland fires can be linked to abnormal weather.
“If the trend continues, and the best scientific studies indicate that it will, wildfires will become a major contributor to green house gases in the atmosphere and impact/accelerate global climate change,” he said in his report to the board.
He encouraged the RDCK to attend future Wildfire conferences, stating, “It was one of the best conferences I have attended, not only in terms of content, but in the venue selection, food, organization and world class presenters.” International perspective, urban home defence, landscape fires and fuel treatment were topics covered.
Area E Official Community Plan adopted
After several public meetings and a community vote that resulted in excluding Blewett from the Official Community Plan, Area E’s OCP was adopted at the May 2013 meeting.
RDCK Medical Marijuana Grow Operations
Applications to grow medical marijuana continue to pour in at the Regional District office, as frustration grows with Health Canada.
“We’ve been inundated with requests,” said chair John Kettle. But until Health Canada finalizes the laws, he said, the RDCK can only accept the applications and advise applicants that it will take at least a year to get their property zoned agricultural or industrial.
Applicants have been concerned that their location will become public. “But zoning is an open, public process, and they’ll be outed. Their name’s going to be out there.
“We very frustrated with the lack of clarity from federal statutes,” said Kettle. “All we can tell people is their application is in the process.”
Although frustrated with the lack of direction from Health Canada, the RDCK’s position is clear, said Kettle: “Our direction is to protect the interests of the RDCK.”
