Net-zero energy
County of Kings receives grant, loan through FCM’s Green Municipal Fund
The new County of Kings engineering and public works centre will be among the first buildings in Nova Scotia certified as a net-zero energy consumer.
At a March 10 virtual event, Kings-Hants MP Kody Blois announced $2.5 million in funding for the Municipality of the County of Kings through the Green Municipal Fund (GMF), in partnership with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).
The money will be used to finance the municipality’s new engineering and public works headquarters in Coldbrook, which is a net-zero energy building. The funding includes a $330,000 grant with the remaining money coming in the form of a repayable loan.
Kings County Mayor Peter Muttart said the municipality is very excited about the project, which is within days of completion.
“We don’t just want to talk the talk, we want to walk the walk and without your assistance we would not be able to do that,” he said.
The mayor said he applauds everyone involved in the development of this “leadingedge facility” designed to substantially lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Muttart said this is not the beginning or the end when it comes to the municipality investing in green energy. Based on a resolution of council, this is the direction throughout the entire county and “the municipality as a corporation had to be the lead.”
“We’ll move on from this to electrifying our fleet, we’ll move on from that to our solar farm and we’ll move on from that hopefully to our wind farm,” Muttart said.
The mayor said the municipality built a new administration centre about three years ago, which is near net-zero energy, “but we couldn’t quite get over the top because of financing issues.”
However, the administration building, also referred to as the municipal complex, features geo-thermal and passive solar heating and there’s a solar array on the roof.
Muttart said that without the participation of the FCM and federal government, the new engineering and public works building “wouldn’t be there.” He said the $2.5 million is very significant toward the financing of the project.
The $330,000 grant portion “makes it all the more sweet” for a municipality that has to rely on property taxes to fund such initiatives.
He said the municipality wants to work with its First Nations communities to get into large, industrial scale wind and solar farms. Muttart said they are “getting close” on the solar side.
“This municipality’s new net-zero energy public works building centre is a significant move in that direction, in our collective desire to take decisions and action in the name of environmental stewardship, which as I said is one of our five key strategic priorities,” Muttart said.
ADVANCING GREEN PROJECTS
Blois said the federal government has been at the forefront of putting a series of programs in place to help address the climate crisis. The March 10 announcement is about the federal government partnering with municipalities.
“The Government of Canada has a series of programs to help reduce emissions and to fight climate change, but we have to be working with all partners,” Blois said.
He said other partners include the private sector, and they have rolled out rebate programs to help individuals who are investing to make their homes more energy efficient.
Blois said the FCM’s fund has been an extremely important program when it comes to working with municipalities that want to advance projects within their jurisdiction.
“It’s been so successful that three years ago we augmented this program and put just shy of $1 billion into this program to help deliver important projects across the country,” Blois said.
The MP said that about a year ago, he was approached by the mayor and council in Kings about support for a new net-zero energy public works garage. This is part of supporting the municipality’s goal of reducing emissions and part of “collective work to be net neutral.”
Blois said the new building “will feature everything from a passive design to other advances in energy efficiency, including automated and control systems, heat pumps and a heat recovery system as well as solar photo voltaic panels.”
MUNICIPALITIES AMONG ‘MOST INNOVATIVE’
FCM third vice-president Geoff Stewart said the GMF has assisted with about 14 projects across Nova Scotia since the fund’s inception about 20 years ago, representing a federal investment of more than $61 million.
“We’re proud of the work local governments are doing on climate action,” Stewart said. “Municipalities own 60 per cent of the country’s public infrastructure and influence half of all greenhouse gas emissions. That means local action is critical and local action is happening.”
He said Canadian municipalities of all sizes are modelling local green solutions that are among the most innovative. These solutions could be replicated and scaled up
across the country for “deep national impact.”
Stewart said the new County of Kings public works operations centre will be one of the first net-zero-energycertified buildings in Nova Scotia. He said empowering local expertise is vital to meeting Canada’s national climate goals.