What We Heard: Community Engagement

Community members and industry representatives were engaged from October 2021 to February 2022 to provide input on climate action initiatives that would support the City's climate emergency targets. Click here to view the engagement summary drafted by the project consultant, Sustainability Solutions Group.

Engagement Included:

• a community survey,
• an ideas board,
• an online workshop with equity-denied community members and organizations,
• consultation with the City's Environment and Climate Advisory Committee,
• direct outreach with targeted industry professionals and researchers, and
• a workshop with building and development industry representatives, community climate activists and organizations, and others.

Summary of Feedback

• Support for building energy efficiency retrofits, including electrifying buildings by using heat pumps.
• Support for more locally-generated renewable energy, such as community solar gardens or solar panels on buildings.
• Support for enhancing active transportation infrastructure, such as protected bike lanes and secured bike parking at high-frequency destinations to encourage bike trips.
• Greater support for making transit more convenient, affordable and accessible, than for encouraging the use of electric vehicles.
• Design City programs and incentives to better reach equity-denied groups with financial and structural barriers (e.g. renters are not able to retrofit their buildings/ apartments and are impacted by decisions made by building owners).
• Reducing electricity rates for low-income populations would help address energy poverty.