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CaGBC submits federal pre-budget recommendations

The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) has sent in a formal submission to the Government of Canada offering three recommendations for the Feds to consider as the pre-budget process begins for next year. The recommendations include: support for low-carbon training and workforce development, stimulating retrofit projects, and promoting zero carbon building construction.

Anticipating that the country will turn to construction and infrastructure projects to re-ignite the economy following the current global health crisis, CaGBC is encouraging the federal government to invest in low-carbon construction to meet the country’s business needs and meet its climate goal of reducing emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030.

Highlights from the CaGBC recommendations include:

• Allocating up to $1000/employee or $500 million to enable access to existing low-carbon training programs, and investing a further $1 billion for workforce development and training to grow Canada’s low-carbon workforce.
• Allocate $50 million to stimulate the development of shovel-worthy projects through 0% financing of energy audits (e.g., ASHRAE Level 2 and 3).
• Support the bundling of retrofit project investments into non-investment grade green bonds.
• Leverage government procurement power by requiring all federally-owned or federally-funded provincial and municipal retrofit projects to accelerate capital improvement plans that prioritize emission reductions.
• Require all federally-funded, owned, or leased new building projects and existing buildings to move towards zero carbon, along with any infrastructure funding for municipalities. Government leadership would de-risk zero carbon building for broader adoption and bring down capital cost premiums.

Visit CaGBC for the complete report.