BONNYVILLE – The MD of Bonnyville is on the hunt for someone to help them be more energy efficient.
Council is ready to move forward with hiring a municipal energy manager through the Municipal Climate Change Action Centre (MCCAC) program, after receiving approval from the province for a change in their application.
While they had been previously approved for the program, the original submission saw the MD partnering with the City of Cold Lake and Village of Glendon. After the city backed out, the MD needed to get the ok to continue.
“The City of Cold Lake has originally placed an interest in this, but has subsequently backed off for the short term,” explained MD CAO Luc Mercier. “I’m not sure if they’re going to come back or not, but the Village of Glendon has definitely committed.”
The cost-sharing grant is for one year and will have the province covering 80 per cent of the bill up to $80,000, while 20 per cent is on the MD. As the managing partner, the MD will be billing Glendon for the portion of time they request the employee for.
“There’s potential to get additional funding for future years, but right now we’ve got one year worth of funding and we will make this a term position for the MD of Bonnyville,” Mercier noted. “For the times they would be used for our buildings, I definitely feel that the 20 per cent is going to be well-spent dollars where we will find ways to be more energy efficient with all of our infrastructure and buildings specifically.”
Once the hiring process is complete, the municipal energy manager will work between the two municipalities taking a closer look at where they could save money in their buildings. One example is the Bonnyville and District Centennial Centre.
“Lots of our buildings are probably not all that energy efficient, and I guarantee the C2 isn’t, so this is going to help. I don’t know to what extent yet, but I’m looking forward to it,” Coun. Dana Swigart said.
Coun. Ed Duchesne questioned if moving ahead with the program would be worth it in the long run.
“We’re going to invest this kind of money into a person to save us 10 or 20 per cent on our energy savings. We’re not going off-grid or anything, can we really justify that kind of money going into a program? To me, it's unattainable.”
In order to ensure the MD is getting a return on their investment, Reeve Greg Sawchuk suggested having the person they hire to complete a report outlining when they’ll see their costs recouped.
“A lot of energy efficient things, you have to look at them over the long term because they have perpetuity. Whether or not we’ve implemented some of those changes in some of our buildings, I don’t think we have, so we may find some pretty easy savings that aren’t outrageous.”
Coun. Ben Fadeyiw agreed, “If you look at the cost of energy, it’s going through the roof. It’s going up higher and higher. This is 80 per cent grant-funded, and I think we have to take advantage of it. We’re only paying for 20 per cent, I’m kind of sad the City of Cold Lake decided not to participate with this, but either way, I think 80 per cent of grant funding to save money in the future is great.”