Official Community Plan

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REDUCING MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT CORPORATION EMISSIONS The City of Courtenay as a corporate entity has been a signatory to the BC Climate Action Charter since 2007. Most communities in BC have signed this Charter which stipulates that signatory local governments agree to develop strategies and take action to reduce emissions within municipal operations and community-wide, including committing to creating a complete, compact, and more energy efficient community. Subsequently, the City adopted a Corporate Climate Action Strategy in 2009 which identified actions the City could take to reduce GHG emissions from the delivery of municipal services in the areas of: 1. Fuel-efficiency and green fleet management 2. Energy efficient retrofits for facilities 3. Green design for new and replacement City buildings 4. Behavioural change to reduce energy demands 5. Energy efficient street and park lighting. The City has implemented the Corporate Climate Action Strategy through rightsizing the City’s fleet, including adding e-bikes to the fleet, conducting energy audits for all municipal facilities, converting light fixtures to LEDs, upgrading HVAC and building automation systems in major City facilities, LED conversions in street lights, water efficiency upgrades at municipal facilities, reusing loose asphalt into new applications, exploring EV charging stations on City property, leak detection and repairs on the municipal water system, and planting thousands of trees on public land. In the 2019 reporting cycle the City of Courtenay municipal operations resulted in 1,262 tCO2e.

POLICY FOUNDATION: UNDERSTANDING AFFORDABILITY

A holistic definition of sustainability is embraced throughout the OCP, recognizing that the ability for present and future generations to meet their economic and social needs within healthy and sustainable ecological systems must be achieved by positively reinforcing economic, social, and ecological systems rather than putting them in conflict with one another. Key affordability factors that are embedded within the policies of the OCP include:

As a public service entity, the City’s affordability objectives are broad and long range. The City of Courtenay considers affordability when planning municipal services for residents and businesses, as well as the affordability of the households themselves. A key assumption of the OCP is that reducing community-wide carbon pollution, supporting holistic community well-being including social equity, and meaningfully advancing reconciliation support municipal and household affordability.

City of Courtenay Official Community Plan