A commission from the City of Montreal recommends prohibiting “as soon as possible” the connection of any new building to the natural gas network. It also endorses the project to decarbonize the housing stock of the administration of Valérie Plante, which had been the subject of public hearings in the fall.
Last spring, the mayoress promised to require promoters to build exclusively “zero emission” buildings by 2025. After an analysis of this file, the Commission on water, the environment, sustainable development and large parks goes even further in its recommendations, presented Thursday.
In particular, it proposes to “prohibit as soon as possible the installation of new indoor fixed appliances” operating with a fossil fuel, including gas stoves. The cross-partisan commission also recommends requiring all owners to declare their stationary appliances using fuel.
For the time being, the roadmap “Towards zero-emission buildings in Montreal by 2040” does not exclude the use of natural gas in existing buildings. However, the commission recommends limiting the use of this fossil fuel to “a maximum threshold of around 15%”, and only during peak periods on the electricity network.
The sequel “in the coming months”
Marie-Andrée Mauger, responsible for ecological transition and the environment on the executive committee of the City of Montreal, says that the administration is “delighted” with the results of the public consultation – in which some fifty organizations , companies and citizens participated – and the resulting recommendations.
“We will take the time to analyze all the recommendations and we will follow up on them in the coming months,” she also said in a written statement. Last May, the mayor’s office said it was hopeful that the by-law would be adopted in 2023.
On the territory of Montreal, about a quarter of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from the building sector. Space heating is very important. In Quebec, heating a home with natural gas generates an average of nearly 10 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Eliminating the use of fossil fuels in buildings, an avenue that other municipalities in Quebec want to take, also comes with its share of health benefits. Note, for example, that gas stoves increase the risk of respiratory symptoms in asthmatic children.
To succeed in Montreal’s energy transition, the commission advises the municipal administration to focus on urban thermal networks, geothermal energy, heat pumps, energy efficiency and energy sobriety. She also recommends creating a “one-stop shop” to help building owners obtain the subsidies to which they will be entitled.
According to the draft regulation of the Plante administration, the existing building stock will have to comply with performance thresholds which will gradually increase, until carbon neutrality is achieved in 2040.
The commission also makes certain political recommendations: it suggests putting pressure on Quebec and Ottawa to release “necessary, sustainable and predictable” funding in order to decarbonize the building sector. It also calls for pressing the provincial government to ban natural gas in new buildings, as is already the case for fuel oil.
Thursday afternoon, environmental groups, including Greenpeace and Nature Quebec, highlighted “the leadership of the metropolis” and congratulated the commission “for the ambition of several of its recommendations”. They also reiterated the importance, according to them, “of not falling into the traps of dual energy electricity-gas and renewable natural gas”.