Our members are a passionate bunch, striving to build the best buildings possible. We focus on employing the Passive House building standard because we recognize its importance in addressing energy efficiency and, increasingly, addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Talking with members at our recent annual conference in Victoria reinforced for me why we do what we do
In my many conversations at the conference, I heard this loud and clear from members: We know overheating in buildings can kill. We know indoor air pollution can shorten lives. We know both threats are worsening because of climate change. We are convinced Passive House can address both issues to keep people safe. We also know we can build to the Passive House standard for approximately the same price as code-built buildings, and that the “Passive House differential” is going down.
Our members were very clear: Building and retrofitting to the Passive House standard helps keep people safe in the face of climate change. It helps make housing affordable by reducing energy costs, especially important these days when Canadian fossil fuel prices are highly susceptible to world events. Passive House buildings are more durable, and maintenance costs are lower.
I’m reminded how important protecting people from overheating has become, thanks to a recent federal government report. The analysis, undertaken by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), found that a heat wave in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada between June 17 and 20 was made “much more likely” from human-induced climate change. In other words, we’re going to see more of these extreme heat events in the years ahead.
The analysis noted abnormally high daytime temperatures, high humidity and warmer-than-normal nighttime lows. Bathurst and Saint John, N.B., in particular, set all-time records for the hottest temperature since data was first gathered in the 1870s.
Kudos to the federal government for its commitment to doing attribution analysis on an ongoing basis. While other countries have undertaken this kind of analysis, Canada is the first country to commit to continue this work.
Meanwhile, a CBC analysis found that while the world is only halfway through 2024, “the global death toll from surging temperatures has been staggering, and a clearer picture is now emerging of extreme heat as one of the deadly emergencies facing regions around the world.”
Canada, of course, is not immune to extreme heat and associated deaths. We remember vividly the 619 deaths in lower Mainland British Columbia in 2021 when a heat dome sent temperatures soaring — and kept them there for many days. Or the year before in Québec when 85 people died in a shorter heat dome event.
The members I spoke with in Victoria were very passionate about the role the Passive House standard can play in keeping people safe. It is these conversations that drive my commitment to continue our work in educating government decision makers and in helping developers understand the cost benefits of Passive House.
Ensuring governments at all levels adopt Passive House or adjacent standards is important. Educating our members and the broader building industry on how to design and build to the Passive House standard has never been more important.
Lives depend on it.
Government of Canada Releases New Canada Green Buildings Strategy
The federal Government has just released their long-awaited Canada Green Buildings Strategy. A quick overview reveals a laundry list of existing programs with some new initiatives, such as the phase out of oil heating systems in new constructions by 2028, the introduction of new energy efficiency regulations for various energy-using products, and work to understand the impact of mandating heat pumps instead of air conditioners.
The strategy also highlights as “new” some recently announced initiatives, including the $800M Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program, the $30M home energy labelling approach, $145.2M for Indigenous climate resiliency, $15B for low-emission rental housing, and $50M for homebuilding innovations like modular homes and 3D printing.
Passive House Canada made recommendations and provided feedback on the draft strategy and will review the final version in depth in the coming weeks and provide more comment next month.
But at first review, despite a solid record of programmatic solutions, the federal government has, perhaps in the face of uninterested/opposed provinces, high-costs or other political calculations, opted to not pay for this transition or mandate others to act through legislation. The strategy unfortunately fails to push federal ambition forward.
Sincerely,
