With more than $64,000 in support from UBCM’s $369-million Community Emergency Preparedness Fund, the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District, in partnership with the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, Toquaht Nation and the Uchucklesaht Tribe, are working to develop an evacuation route plan for the west coast of the region. The route breaks up the Alberni Valley into manageable geographic zones, each with muster points and reception centres, to help ensure the safety of residents – even those in remote communities – in the event of a large-scale emergency such as a tsunami, an earthquake, a wildfire or flooding.
Spurred on by a $100,000 grant from the CleanBC Building Innovation Fund, the City of Fort St. John is constructing a new net-zero-ready home for the community’s RCMP detachment. The building will use significantly less energy than the current station and bring substantial cost savings and emissions reductions to the community. It features locally sourced mass timber, a solar-ready roof, energy-efficient HVAC systems and a thermal performance-maximizing envelope.
Through a combination of federal and provincial support, the City of Kamloops completed a $13.5 million project to upgrade the energy efficiency of its Canada Games Aquatic Centre. The project started with a need to replace the centre’s critical ageing infrastructure. But – thanks to provincial and federal funding – it turned into an opportunity to simultaneously improve the environmental performance of the building.
Bolstered by more than $1.1 million from the provincial government through the CleanBC Communities Fund and $1.37 million from the federal government, the city was able to install a heat-recovery system that uses the heat that evaporates off the pool to warm the new air entering the building. This reduces the centre’s reliance on natural gas and lowers its greenhouse gas emissions – taking Kamloops one important step closer to meeting its climate goals.
Thanks to $500,000 from the Mass Timber Demonstration Program, the City of Kelowna is transforming its airport into a future-ready, eco-friendly facility. By using locally sourced, lightweight, prefabricated mass timber panels, the project is highlighting the potential of B.C.’s innovative low-carbon wood products, minimizing construction-related transportation costs and emissions, and supporting greener jobs – all while reaping the benefits of a quick, safe build that allows the airport to remain open while the work is underway.
The original fleet of electric SkyTrain cars is still running smoothly, thanks in large part to the Canada Community-Building Fund. Through one of the fund’s three streams – the Greater Vancouver Regional Fund – TransLink has received almost $2 billion to date for everything from new buses to constructing the new Marpole electric-bus transit centre. Most recently, funding allowed for the refurbishment of 144 Mark 1 SkyTrain cars dating from the 1980s and 90s, each of which has run, on average, more than 3.2 million kilometres to date. Now, with funding from the Canada Community-Building Fund, they’ll be a part of the region’s clean transportation future for years to come.
With a $269,799 boost from the UBCM Community Works Fund, the City of Richmond is continuing its mission to replace its worn-out high-pressure sodium streetlights with more energy-efficient LEDs. By the end of this year, approximately 1,200 fixtures throughout Richmond will have been converted, reducing energy consumption by 350,000 kilowatt hours and rewarding the city with $30,000 in annual savings.
