September is here! After two years of countless restrictions, I’m happy to see people took much-needed time this summer to disconnect, relax and travel and are now getting back into the swing of autumn.
It has been a busy season for us at Passive House Canada as we plan for our September Symposium, meet with government and industry and talk to media. In late August, I was an invited guest on the Municipal World MW Shares podcast. Host Scott Vokey and I discussed how Passive House can help municipalities more quickly and, with more certainty, meet their climate change objectives.
The Canada Green Buildings Strategy
Natural Resources Canada has opened public consultations on its Canada Green Buildings Strategy discussion paper. In general, we are pleased with the document and would encourage you to review it and make comment before September 16. Passive House Canada will be making input in the next few days and we will let you know what our submission says.
From my previous experience in government, I can tell you writing the strategy is the easy part. The difficult part will be having it withstand the onslaught of opposition from entrenched members of the building industry who would gut it because it is not in their interests. Most will be well funded and well connected. Government will be warned that “going green” costs too much, sets impossible goals, that component shortage makes it impossible, that we lack skilled trades to undertake it, and that it will make housing unaffordable. Those are the usual arguments and they have all been disproved. We need to let government know that, and to encourage our elected leaders and senior civil servants to stand strong in the face of what I believe will be a well coordinated and funded pushback.
Stay tuned as we put our position forward, and ask you to do the same.
Prefab Symposium “On the Rise”
If you haven’t yet purchased your ticket for our Symposium, On the Rise, now is the time. Hosted on a virtual platform, the Symposium will run from September 21-23. With over 43 sessions, this promises to be our largest Symposium yet, illustrating no small interest or enthusiasm by our community in the potential for prefab.
From technical to operational and beyond, we have sessions to appeal to every sector of our Passive House community. I am personally looking forward to a presentation on the Wawakapewin First Nations Project, which will take a deep dive into the logistics of building in the Arctic climate region where road access is open for only a few months of the year. Another session will detail a Passive House-certified low energy prefab build in Banff National Park, a project which required considerable planning and detail.
Don’t forget to register here for the symposium. Looking forward to seeing you all online at this terrific start to the fall season.
Thank you,
