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3. CITY OF OTTAWA APPLICATION
TO THE GREEN MUNICIPAL FUNDS |
Committee
recommendations
That Council approve the Application to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’
Green Municipal Funds for the following projects:
1. Building
a Resilient Sustainable Community;
2. Integrated
Greenhouse Gas and Air Quality Inventories for the Community and the
Municipality.
Recommandations du Comité
Que le Conseil approuve la demande, auprès de la Fédération canadienne
des municipalités, de fonds municipaux verts destinés aux projets
suivants :
1. bâtir
une communauté viable et résiliente;
2. inventaires
intégrés des émissions de gaz à effet de serre et de la qualité de l’air pour
la communauté et la municipalité.
Documentation
1. Deputy City Manager's report (Planning
and Growth Management) dated
3 April 2006 (ACS2006-PGM-POL-0030).
Report to/Rapport au :
Planning and Environment Committee
Comité de l'urbanisme et de
l'environnement
and Council / et au Conseil
3 April 2006 / le 3 avril 2006
Submitted by/Soumis par : Ned Lathrop, Deputy City Manager/
Directeur municipal adjoint,
Planning and Growth Management/Urbanisme et Gestion de la croissance
Contact
Person/Personne ressource : Carol Christensen, Manager
Planning, Environment and Infrastructure
Policy/Politiques d’urbanisme, d’environnement et d’infrastructure
(613) 580-2424 x21610,
Carol.Christensen@ottawa.ca
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SUBJECT: |
TO
THE GREEN MUNICIPAL FUNDS |
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OBJET : |
VERTS DE LA VILLE
D’OTTAWA |
REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS
That
the Planning and Environment Committee recommend Council approve the
Application to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Funds
for the following projects:
1. Building
a Resilient Sustainable Community;
2. Integrated
Greenhouse Gas and Air Quality Inventories for the Community and the
Municipality.
RECOMMANDATIONS DU RAPPORT
Que le Comité de
l’urbanisme et de l’environnement recommande que le Conseil approuve la
demande, auprès de la Fédération canadienne des municipalités, de fonds
municipaux verts destinés aux projets suivants :
1. bâtir
une communauté viable et résiliente ;
2. inventaires
intégrés des émissions de gaz à effet de serre et de la qualité de l’air pour
la communauté et la municipalité.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Assumptions and Analysis:
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) offers funding to stimulate environmental projects by municipal governments and their partners that generate measurable environmental, economic, and social benefits. Since the inception of the FCM’s funds in 2000, both former municipalities and the current City of Ottawa have received Green Municipal Enabling Funds grants that have supplied up to 50% of the required funding for a range of energy and waste management projects that aimed to either reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or increase their usefulness and decrease the environmental impact of selected waste streams.
This report recommends Committee and Council approval of two projects for submission to the Green Municipal Funds, as follows:
The City is seeking a total grant of $350,000 for the Resilient Sustainable Community project and $35,000 for the GHG and Air Quality Inventories from FCM with the remaining 50% project balance to be funded by City program budgets.
Conduct of this work will achieve a number of environmental benefits including:
Financial
Implications:
The Green Municipal Fund will pay no more than half the cost of an approved project up to a maximum of $350,000. The City of Ottawa would be required to contribute 50% of the total study costs. Estimated total costs for the recommended projects are:
Public
Consultation/Input:
The Building a Resilient Sustainable Community project will include consultation. The project has been presented to the Environmental Advisory Committee, the Health and Social Services Advisory Committee and the Ottawa Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee, all of whom were generally supportive.
There was consultation during development and approval of the Environmental Strategy and the Air Quality and Climate Change Management Plan. The need for an updated inventory of greenhouse gas and other air contaminant emissions was identified in these documents.
RÉSUMÉ
Hypothèses et analyse :
La
fédération canadienne des municipalités (FCM) offre du financement destiné à
soutenir des projets environnementaux, initiés par les gouvernements municipaux
et leurs partenaires,
qui génèrent des avantages environnementaux, économiques et sociaux mesurables. Depuis la mise sur pied des fonds
de la FCM en 2000, les anciennes municipalités et la nouvelle Ville d’Ottawa
ont reçu des subventions du Fonds d’habilitation municipale vert qui ont fourni
jusqu’à 50 % du financement requis pour une série de projets de gestion de
l’énergie et des déchets visant à réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre
(GES) ou accroître leur utilité et réduire les impacts environnementaux de
certains flux de déchets.
Le
présent rapport recommande que le Comité et le Conseil approuvent deux projets
à des fins de présentation au Fonds municipal vert, comme suit :
La Ville vise
à obtenir une subvention totale de 350 000 $ pour le projet Bâtir une
communauté viable et résiliente et de 35 000 $ pour les inventaires
des GES et de la qualité de l’air de la FCM. Les 50 % restants pour le
projet proviendront des budgets de programme de la Ville.
La réalisation du projet se traduira par un
certain nombre d’avantages environnementaux, y compris :
Répercussions financières :
Le Fonds municipal vert versera pas plus de la
moitié des dépenses d’un projet approuvé jusqu’à concurrence maximale de
350 000 $. La Ville d’Ottawa devra contribuer 50 % du coût total
de l’étude. Les coûts totaux prévus pour les projets recommandés sont les
suivants :
Consultation publique / commentaires :
Le projet Bâtir une communauté viable et
résiliente comporte une consultation. Le projet a été présenté aux Comité
consultatif de l’environnement, Comité consultatif sur la santé et les services
sociaux et au Comité consultatif sur les forêts et les espaces verts d’Ottawa,
qui, en général, ont tous bien reçu le projet.
Une consultation publique a eu lieu au cours de
l’élaboration et de l’approbation de la Stratégie environnementale et du Plan
de gestion de la qualité de l’air et des changements climatiques. Le besoin
d’une mise à jour de l’inventaire des émissions de gaz à effet de serre et
autres contaminants atmosphériques est précisé dans ces documents.
The Federation
of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) administers the Green Municipal Funds (GMF)
established by the Government of Canada in Budget 2000 and re-established in
2005. The fund now consists of a $550-million endowment from the Government of
Canada.
The GMF were established to stimulate environmental projects by municipal governments and their partners that generate measurable environmental, economic, and social benefits. Cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a priority of the Fund, as is improving local air, water and soil quality, and promoting renewable energy.
The Fund now distinguishes four types of project activities:
The re-established GMF contains a number of significant changes including the creation of a single Green Municipal Fund with annual funding caps. The funding option available to applicants for feasibility studies, field tests and sustainable community plans is a grant of up to 50% of the Total Eligible Costs to a maximum of $350,000 per project. The national funding caps for this option are grants that total $8 to $12 million a year.
Also new is a competitive process for obtaining GMF grant and loan funding for capital implementation projects: $50 to $70 million per year for loans, $7 to $10 million per year for grants.
Due to the review of FCM by the Federal Government in 2005, and the impending changes in funding structures, municipalities were called upon to submit their proposals early. Due to the time requirements for FCM to review submissions, staff forwarded the recommended projects to FCM for consideration. During this time, the FCM regulations have undergone changes. FCM now has separate calls based on themes such as energy, brownfields, etc.
These projects are solidly built upon Ottawa 20/20, with the addition of a systems perspective and an integrated management approach.
Building a Resilient and Sustainable Community is a corporate
initiative that is the interface of two projects, one that deals with disaster
mitigation and another with planning for long-term community sustainability.
The premise is that a sustainable city is a resilient city. Building a resilient and sustainable
community is a proactive way to strengthen the capacity of the urban and rural
system to respond to disasters and change. The focus of the initiative is the resiliency/sustainability
assessment of the current urban and rural system. The project intends to
systematically integrate planning for development, redevelopment, utilities,
transportation, and other infrastructure. We anticipate that many of the
actions and policy changes identified will contribute both to reducing the
vulnerability of the region to a variety of threats and to increasing its
ecological, social and economic sustainability.
This is a community-wide intiative that includes a partnership between the City of Ottawa, the City of Gatineau and the National Capital Commission (NCC). The project is based on intergated planning or the one system approach. There are challenges that are common to the whole region, as well as challenges that are interdependent. At its October 2005 meeting, the Tripartite National Planning Committee agreed that the City of Gatineau, NCC, and the City of Ottawa would embrace this project together.
The Integrated Greenhouse Gas and Air Quality Inventories for the Community and the Municipality is a project that stems from Council approval of the Environmental Strategy in 2003. One of the six Strategic Environmental Commitments in the Strategy is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Air Quality and Climate Change Management Plan approved by Council in 2005 set specific targets for reductions in corporate and community greenhouse gas emissions. The project is needed to create a baseline for greenhouse gases and air contaminants emissions for the amalgamated City of Ottawa.
These projects are described in the attached documents.
FCM has notified the City that both projects have met the entry requirements. With PEC and Council approval, the next step in the process would be to sign an agreement.
The projects will provide an environmental benefit to the City of Ottawa.
Building a Resilient Sustainable Community will result in more integrated systematic responses to resource scarcities (e.g. power outages) and climate change (e.g. ice storm). The cost of disaster management may be significantly reduced because of long term planning (i.e. resiliency).
In the case of the Integrated Greenhouse Gas and Air Quality Inventories for the Community and the Municipality, the inventories will not only enable the newly formed City of Ottawa to accurately describe its emissions today but it will also be used to predict the effectiveness of new and underway initiatives, and will ultimately lead to the identification of opportunities for reductions.
The Building a Resilient Sustainable Community project will include consultation. The project has been presented to the Environmental Advisory Committee, the Health and Social Services Advisory Committee and the Ottawa Forests and Greenspace Advisory Committee, all of whom were generally supportive. The City has also consulted with City of Gatineau and National Capital Commission staff.
There was consultation during development and approval of the Environmental Strategy and the Air Quality and Climate Change Management Plan. The need for an updated inventory of greenhouse gas and other air contaminant emissions was identified in these documents.
The Green Municipal Fund will pay no more than half the cost of an approved project up to a maximum of $350,000. The City of Ottawa would be required to contribute 50% of the total study costs. Estimated total costs for the recommended projects are:
Document 1 Building a Resilient Sustainable Community
Document 2 Integrated Greenhouse Gas and Air Quality Inventories for the Community and the Municipality
Due to the time requirements for FCM to review “Intent to Apply” submissions, staff has forwarded the recommended projects to FCM for consideration. Following review of this item by Committee and Council, Environmental Sustainability staff of the Planning and Growth Management Department will notify FCM of Council’s decision.
DOCUMENT 1
BUILDING A RESILIENT AND SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY
Building a Resilient Sustainable Community
Project Summary
The City is committed to planning for long term community sustainability and will do this in a context that also explicitly addresses proactive emergency planning and risk management. Building a resilient and sustainable community is a proactive way to manage risks. It is about the capacity of the urban system to respond to disasters and change. It is a crosscutting theme, integrated into land use planning, building design, infrastructure systems, and social and economic systems. The urban system is made up of people, places, infrastructure, and governance. They include: natural habitat, social equity, energy, water, materials, buildings, economic development, agriculture and food, decision support and some other components.
The City’s emergency planning has traditionally focused on developing plans to respond to various anticipated threats. This new approach will also consider how changes could minimize the likely occurrence or impact of a wider range of threats such as climate change and resource scarcities.
The City of Ottawa has started down the pathway to sustainability about 20 years ago. Major progress has been made in terms of policy goals and integration of these goals in the Ottawa 20/20 plans and the City’s Corporate Plan. While the City has implemented or is in the process of implementing a number of specific environmental initiatives, from a systems perspective there are still major gaps to fill. This project proposes to fill those gaps by taking a systems perspective and working towards integrated management approaches. Work already underway in the City on topics such as climate change adaptation and other environmental initiatives will be linked to this exercise.
The City of Gatineau and the National Capital Commission have been invited to continue to partner in this exercise, since the National Capital Area functions as an economic and environmental unit.
The goals of the project include:
The project has four phases and several distinct steps that will unfold between 2006-2008. The four phases are:
Phase 1 (2006):
Phase 2 (2006-2007):
Phase 3
(2007):
Phase 4
(2008):
The resiliency/sustainability assessment of the current urban/rural system
will be the centerpiece of the overall initiative. It is made up of several steps:
The searching for solutions part of the exercise will be based on this thorough assessment and will follow with the next steps:
The planning charrette in early 2007 will enable the participants to test the sustainability of current policies and trends and then devise and test new models for infrastructure, urban form and settlement pattern that would make the region more resilient and sustainable. Following the seeking solutions phase, the process will culminate in a Community Summit in 2007 that will present best practices, revisit Ottawa 20/20 and other visions in the Ottawa-Gatineau area and explore options for change. The process is intended to change behaviors of households and businesses in the National Capital area as well as policies and practices of municipal government.
We need an urban and rural system that is sufficiently resilient to both protect human security and allow progress towards long-term sustainability. We anticipate that many of the actions and policy changes identified will contribute both to reducing the vulnerability of the region to a variety of threats and to increasing its ecological, social and economic sustainability.
The results of this project, new strategies and an integrated approach, will contribute to the City’s emergency preparedness, and to the revisions of the City’s Official Plan and Environmental Strategy and the plans of partner agencies. The missing links that need to be addressed are:
It is anticipated that staff and community involvement in this process will result in a wider understanding of the need to live within our ecological means. The use of a scenario-based modelling tool is expected to demonstrate the unsustainability of current development practices. The ability to connect choices and consequences will lead to greater understanding at the staff, political and community level of the changes in policy and behaviour that are required in order to respect the carrying capacity of local and global ecosystems. Success at anticipating and reducing the impacts of various threats will likely reduce potential costs to both the municipality and residents and businesses.
ESTIMATED
COST - $700,000
GRANT
REQUESTED - $350,000
DOCUMENT 2
INTEGRATED GREENHOUSE GAS AND AIR QUALITY
INVENTORIES FOR THE COMMUNITY AND THE MUNICIPALITY
The City needs a baseline study of current levels of both greenhouse gas (GHG) and air quality parameters to measure progress against its “Air Quality and Climate Change Management Plan,” where the City identified a series of actions to mitigate climate change and improve air quality.
This would also be the first GHG inventory after the amalgamation of 12 municipalities in 2001 and the first ever air quality inventory for the City of Ottawa. The methodology used will allow comparison with former inventories performed for the Regional Municipality of Ottawa/Carleton. Data required to calculate GHGs will be collected and categorized into numerous sectors: buildings (residential; commercial; institutional; industrial; and municipal facilities), transportation, lighting, water/sewage, and waste. Energy categories will include fossil fuel, nuclear, hydro, alternative -wind, geothermal, solar, natural gas, propane, heating oil, energy-from-waste, diesel, gasoline, and aviation fuel.
In addition, the air quality inventory will be compiled in a database that is compatible and easily updated with data from the Ministry of Environment and various federal departments, and most of all it will be user-friendly for City of Ottawa staff. The data will be provided in a segregated form so that energy use and emissions from City controlled sources can be differentiated from others for policy purposes. Once established, City of Ottawa staff will maintain the database for future baseline years.
ESTIMATED
COST - $70,000
GRANT REQUESTED - $35,000