The Plante administration will present a roadmap on Tuesday entitled Towards zero-emission buildings in Montreal. The document will be unveiled as part of the first Montreal Climate Summit, at Bonsecours Market.
The city’s new roadmap lays the foundations for the decarbonization of buildings on the territory of the metropolis
in a climate emergency
indicate the documents consulted by Radio-Canada.
Currently, the building sector accounts for nearly 30% of the city’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Presented in December 2020, the City of Montreal’s 2020-2030 Climate Plan provided that all Montreal buildings should be powered exclusively by 100% renewable energy by 2050. This target will ultimately be advanced to 2040.
Start the conversion
Quebec has already adopted a regulation on oil heaters, last November, which prohibits the installation of these since December 31, 2021 in new residential constructions of 600 square meters or less that do not exceed three floors.
It also provides that the replacement of these systems with new appliances running on fuel oil or using fossil fuel
in existing buildings will be banned from 2024.
But the City of Montreal wants to go further, by attacking all buildings in the city, whether residential, commercial or institutional, and by imposing performance thresholds
.
The Municipality’s roadmap, which will be presented on Tuesday, will notably impose a zero emission performance threshold
from 2024 for new buildings of less than 2,000 square meters. Owners of new buildings of 2000 square meters and more will have to comply from 2025.
“Montréal is taking great leadership,” argues Marie-Andrée Mauger, head of ecological transition on the executive committee of the City of Montreal. As Quebec’s metropolis, we know that eyes are on us to determine transition paths, to see how we are going to get there. And what is announced in the building is really major. »
Photo: Radio-Canada / Benoît Chapdelaine
With regard to existing buildings, owners with a heating appliance using a fuel (oil or gas) will also have to prepare for the transition which will have to take place by 2040.
Those who own a building of less than 2,000 square meters will have to complete a mandatory declaration from 2023.
Large landowners, for their part, will have to deal with the gradual imposition of performance thresholds
to be achieved, which will be determined during a public consultation, which will take place in the fall.
Co-president of the Climat Montréal partnership, Karel Mayrand (on the right in the photo) is delighted that the “zero emissions” deadline which had been set for 2050 has been brought forward to 2040 for the building sector. “Not only are we getting closer to the deadline, but […]there is a very concrete roadmap on how we are going to get there”, he underlines.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Benoît Chapdelaine
It’s really the idea of no longer deploying systems that emit greenhouse gases in new buildings and, in existing buildings, it’s to initiate the conversion
summarizes the head of ecological transition on the executive committee of the City of Montreal, Marie-Andrée Mauger.
To set an example, the City has also entered into an agreement with Hydro-Québec to convert the heating systems of some 300 municipal buildings by 2030. The said agreement will also be presented on Tuesday at the Montreal Climate Summit.
With information from Benoît Chapdelaine
Reference-ici.radio-canada.ca