Doc explores Canada’s modern-day pioneers
Three-year odyssey leads filmmaker to those who have chosen to live off the grid
We are certainly creatures of comfort. In fact, electricity, plumbing and running water enter our conscience only when they suddenly become scarce. Many of us don’t even realize where our resources come from in the first place.
It’s an understated character flaw but one that inspired Jonathan Taggart to set out on a three-year trek across Canada in search of those who have decided to disconnect from the city and abandon their reliance on urban support systems, opting instead to live in homes powered by wind or sun, and even disposing of their own waste.
The Vancouver filmmaker not only uncovered many pioneers of sustainability during his enviro-expedition, he turned the experience into an eye- opening documentary called Life Off Grid. With the movie opening this weekend in Toronto, we wondered what urbanites might learn (if anything) from Taggart and his experts.
Electricity In December 2013, more than 300,000 Torontonians found themselves without power during the ice storm that ravaged the city’s electrical grid. The event crippled the city and cost over $100 million, but many in Life Off Grid bypass such dependence by making their environmental power supplies. As one resident says, “If my power goes out, I fix it.”
“From an electricity standpoint, individual households going off the grid in a city doesn’t make any sense,” says Taggart, while insisting urbanites should still take advantage of economies of scale and existing infrastructure. “Knowing that all these things are connected will encourage people in a city to collectively be more conscious about their resource use.” Transit For those living off the grid in remote areas, there’s hardly the dilemma of a daily commute. But that’s precisely one of the frustrations that drive people out of the city. In Toronto, transit issues are compounded by gridlock, skyrocketing transit fares and inadequate infrastructure.
“I think what citizens can do is push their local governments,” says Taggart, conceding it’s not an easy exercise. Vancouver recently held a transit referendum that failed because many suburban citizens don’t value the services. Nonetheless, Taggart maintains that “if you admire an offgrid lifestyle, go out and vote ‘yes’ in a transit referendum. Pay an extra mi- nuscule fee on top of your property taxes every year so that everybody can have a better transit system.”
Real estate With the average house price topping $650,000 in Toronto, home buyers may be envious of Daniel, a B.C. resident in the film who proudly lives in a house he constructed himself and “doesn’t owe any money on.” While his seven-storey “architectural monstrosity” might not be sanctioned in the city, building codes often don’t apply off the grid.
“Across the board we saw people who were building their own houses and building them in ways that suited the way they like to move around space in a home, but also suited the fall of the land that they happened to have,” says Taggart. “You can do these things safely and with a little bit of creativity, (but) they’re difficult to implement in the city.”
Old junk With Goodwill donation stores abruptly shutting their doors in January, there’s little doubt many items and clothing that would have been recycled are now rotting in junkyards. While going off the grid may mean no new clothes regularly, Taggart argues that living outside the societal anxiety of owning the newest gadget isn’t such a bad thing.
“It’s an active way of getting away from the materialistic and throwaway culture that we are immersed in,” explains the 31-year-old Ryerson University alumnus.
But Taggart also points out that there’s freedom in keeping wellworn items as well: something that all of us could benefit from.
“Part of it is the knowledge of how to maintain those things that you have, whether it’s as simple as sewing a patch on the knee of your jeans,” says Taggart. “You’re building in a little bit of knowledge of how to provide for yourself and there’s independence that comes with that.” Life Off Grid opens Friday at the Bloor Hot Docs cinema.