The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) voted to adopt a new electric vehicle strategy at the June 7 council meeting.
The new strategy puts forward a range of measures that could help with increasing the uptake of emission-free transportation, with the goal to have 50 per cent of cars registered in Whistler be electric vehicles by 2030.
In 2020, Whistler council adopted the Climate Action Big Moves Strategy and a new climate target of reducing Whistler’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50 per cent below 2007 levels by 2030.
The 2030 goal will be challenging to achieve, especially as the municipality has continued to grow, both in population and visitation. Tackling emissions from vehicles is the most significant step the municipality can take to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, passenger vehicles are the most significant contributor to emissions in the municipality, accounting for about 54 per cent of Whistler’s total emissions in 2019.
“Our priority to lower these emissions is to get people out of the car. We want to prioritize preferred modes of transportation: walking, biking, transit, and so on. So that’s why our first Big Move is to get people out of the car with the goal that half of the trips are by active transportation or transit,” said RMOW climate action coordinator Luisa Burhenne in a presentation to council.
“We realize that there will still be people driving in cars, and we do need to tackle these emissions as well. That’s why our second Big Move goal is to have 50 per cent of all cars in Whistler [be] zero-emission vehicles by 2030.”
The goal of the Whistler EV strategy is to identify actions and create a strategic, coordinated approach to achieving the second Big Move target, “and to do so, we have to take a lot of different aspects into account and realize competing priorities,” Burhenne said.
The measures put forward in the new strategy are to be completed in the short-, medium- and long-term. The short-term measures include developing a zero-emissions municipal fleet strategy, increasing education to the community and industry about the benefits of EVs, and expanding the EV charging network in the municipality.
Thanks to a recently approved CleanBC grant, the EV charging network will receive an expansion of 41 charging locations across the Sea to Sky, with many of these located in Whistler. Long-term, the municipality hopes to have 348 Level 2 or 87 DC fast chargers, or an equivalent combination of the two in the municipality to keep up as more people transition to EVs.
The difference in the number of charging stations required has to do with how quickly the systems can fill up an EV. A DC fast charger can charge an EV from empty to full in as little as an hour compared to three to six hours on a Level 2 charger.
The longer-term measures include some larger goals that will require cooperation with other levels of government and industry partners. This includes advocating for high-impact senior government policies, training and capacity building for electricians and electrification of school and transit buses.
The RMOW and Tourism Whistler conducted a survey to understand some of the concerns residents and tourists have around EV use, which received 1,440 responses, giving staff a better understanding of some of the challenges that EV owners encounter in the municipality.
Through the survey, some concerns were raised from residents who live in stratas that cited a lack of access to home charging and barriers to retrofitting their buildings.
The municipal strategy aims to have 100 per cent of stratas undergo an EV-ready plan by 2030. This is on top of advocating for the provincial government to adopt “right to charge” legislation that would amend the BC Strata Property Act and require strata councils to accommodate reasonable requests from residents for EV-charging infrastructure.
The survey also noted that renters in Whistler face a difficult time accessing home-charging stations, and hotels in Whistler need more EV-charging infrastructure—both of which the new strategy will help address.
Find more info at whistler.ca/bigmoves.
PLUMBING AND BUILDING PERMIT FEE INCREASES CONSIDERED
Building and plumbing permit fees in Whistler could potentially be rising soon.
At its June 7 meeting, council moved a motion for staff to look into amending the current building and plumbing permitting fees bylaw to increase fees.
The exact amendment to the bylaw will be decided and brought to council at a future date, but the general direction is that the building and plumbing fees should be increased in the municipality.
The last increase to building permit fees occurred in 2012, said RMOW building department manager Melissa Hollis.
“Over the past 10 years, the permitting process and resources required to support this has changed significantly. However, applications have become more complex and involve increased amount of staff time to review and process as well as requiring more resources to support inspections and regulatory reviews.
“The construction industry has also evolved in the community over the past decade. Current fees are not comparable with many other communities in the local area. With RMOW fee structure being significantly lower, an amendment to the fees will adjust for this disparity and make it a more equitable fee.”
With that in mind, “an analysis of permit fees and changes required needs to be conducted to continue to support the additional resources and staff time required to continue to sustain and improve the appropriate level of service to the community,” Hollis said.
According to the report to council, “staff anticipate that changes to fees detailed in the current Schedule B could be in the range of a 25- to 40-per-cent increase in order to align with comparable local communities and provide enough additional funding resources to support improved service to the community.”
The additional revenue would go towards tackling the current permitting backlog the municipality is facing by increasing available staff resources.
COUNCIL HEARS UPDATE ON STEP CODE
The goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from buildings in Whistler moved one step ahead as Whistler’s mayor and council heard an update on staff progress of adopting the BC Energy Step Code for buildings at the June 7 council meeting.
Buildings are one of the largest emitters of GHG in the municipality, accounting for 38 per cent of Whistler’s emissions in 2019. When the pandemic reduced car usage in 2020, that figure rose to more than 50 per cent.
The Step Code is an optional compliance path in the BC Building Code that local governments may use to incentivize or require a level of energy efficiency in a new construction that goes above and beyond the requirements of the BC Building Code.
In 2018, the RMOW amended its building and plumbing regulation bylaw, effectively moving Whistler straight to Step 3 of the Step Code for smaller, less complex residential buildings.
In 2032, the provincial government will require all municipalities in the province to adopt the building Step Code measures.
The new plans were to be approved in the summer of 2022, with the implementation of a new bylaw at the beginning of 2023, however, this has been delayed by staff, who want to see what the new Step Code rules the province will announce will look like.
According to RMOW climate action coordinator Luisa Burhenne, the main difference between the provincial and municipal approach that has been drafted is that the provincial approach allows the RMOW to cap emissions from the entire building.
“While we put a lot of effort into drafting our approach, and we’re very diligent in stakeholder engagement and making sure everyone is on board, we also feel that there are many advantages of adopting the provincial approach because the provincial approach is much more detailed,” she said.
“They outline specific greenhouse gas targets for different buildings by use ... and they have different greenhouse gas intensities for building time. Ultimately, we feel that the provincial approach is potentially more effective in achieving our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions of new buildings going forward.”
