Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP, Carol Hughes writes a regular column about initiatives and issues impacting our community.
There seems to be this persistent yet false idea that working to protect our environment comes with unintended negative consequences for our economy. A large part of this may be fear driven by those industries whose financial stake is driven by their ability to pollute, such as the fossil fuel industry. However, this has always been a false choice.
The clean energy and renewable sectors are growing. The International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organization established in 1974 that provides policy recommendations and analysis on the global energy sector, released a report last week that details the rapid growth of clean energy technologies in the past two years. Solar energy expanded by 50 percent worldwide, electric car sales increased by 240 percent, and costs associated with the development of clean energy tech, including solar PV, wind, heat pumps and batteries, fell by an average of 80 percent since 2010. These are promising developments. However, beyond the clean energy sector, if we are to further mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, we must also look towards ensuring that the materials we use for building material are also environmentally sustainable.
There has been an encouraging development on this front from recently passed legislation. Bill S-222, a Senate bill that was originally introduced by the NDP in the House of Commons in 2017, encourages the use of more environmentally sustainable materials in public buildings. The bill passed unanimously in both the House of Commons and the Senate, showing broad support across party lines.
This legislation stipulates that the when the government is building federal infrastructure, the Minister of Public Works “shall consider any potential reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and any other environmental benefits and may allow the use of wood or any other thing — including a material, product or sustainable resource — that achieves such benefits.” Essentially, it requires the government to assess all building materials’ environmental benefits before approving their use in government buildings and encourages the use of sustainable materials such as wood where possible.
It's a simple bill that could have a significant impact on Canada’s sustainable materials industries. It would be a boon to our softwood lumber industry, one that’s been struggling to deal with tariff disputes from the United States for almost two decades now. This bill would certainly do much to bolster the forestry industry domestically and would create good-paying jobs. It would also encourage other industries, such as concrete and steel, to reduce their carbon footprint in the manufacturing process.
One such product that’s been gaining steam in recent years, particularly in BC, is mass timber. Mass timber is created by gluing, nailing, or doweling wood products together in thick layers. It can be used similarly to steel I-beams or load bearing concrete but has the added benefit of both sequestering carbon and using less energy to manufacture than more common building materials. Because mass timber is designed to be thick, early analysis indicates that it can be quite fire resistant but is also significantly lighter than traditional building materials.
This bill also inadvertently encourages life cycle assessment analysis for any construction materials that would be used in federal construction projects. It’s the sort of data-driven analysis that would examine the carbon footprint of building materials throughout production and construction, but also for energy efficiency over the longer term. It would make no sense to use building materials that produce a low-carbon footprint if it means the use of those materials don’t properly insulate the building, and results in higher energy use to heat it over the course of its life cycle.
Governments can use procurement policy to create better-paying jobs in our communities. Bill S-222 represents a simple, yet effective policy that can bring significant economic benefits to home-grown Canadian industry while also helping to reduce our carbon footprint.