Vancouver city council voted on Thursday to pass Mayor Ken Sim’s motion that pauses climate-friendly bylaws that tracked the city’s emissions, with the motion also seeking to again allow new homes to use natural gas for space and water heating.
Sim argued the motion, which sought to align Vancouver’s building bylaws with that of the province, would clear up regulatory hurdles and make housing more affordable by giving home-builders more choices.
But the motion received significant opposition from dozens of people who spoke to council over a marathon two-day meeting, with critics arguing that buildings account for a majority of Vancouver’s emissions and the city should not roll back green initiatives.
Even provincial Housing Minister Christine Boyle had urged the city in a letter to delay decisions on building codes until the fall, when her ministry would finish a review of provincial emissions goals.
Dozens protested a move to reverse the ban on natural gas heating in new homes at Vancouver council in July 2024. That move was ultimately shot down in a later vote at council in November of that year. (Chad Pawson/CBC)
But for his part, Sim said the decision was in line with moves to remove the federal and provincial consumer carbon tax, and the motion would cut red tape.
“Every extra rule, every added delay and every layer of bureaucracy gets passed directly onto the people trying to afford rent, buy a home, or keep a small business alive in this city,” Sim said in a statement.
His motion means that the bylaws connected to Energize Vancouver — a city initiative that sees owners and strata councils in large buildings report their carbon emissions per year and sets limits on natural gas emissions — will be paused.
Sim argued that allowing the option of natural gas heating in new homes would spur new home construction.
The bylaws that sought to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were part of climate-friendly policies stretching back years in Vancouver.
On its website, the city itself estimates that nearly 60 per cent of the carbon pollution generated in Vancouver was due to burning natural gas for space and water heating.
Seven councillors with Sim’s ABC slate voted to approve Sim’s motion, while all four opposition councillors voted against it.
Previously, some ABC councillors helped vote down an effort to reverse the ban on natural gas heating in new homes in November 2024.
Doctor critical of change
In her letter to city council, Boyle said that the province was working on a review of its zero carbon step code that seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in new buildings.
She said the analysis would incorporate feedback from representatives from B.C.’s housing sector, and that a previous review of B.C.’s climate action plan had recommended a push for zero-carbon new buildings by 2030.
“I encourage the City of Vancouver to delay a decision on further changes until the fall, when the [provincial] cost and impact analysis with the sector is complete,” the letter reads.
Sim said in a reply to Boyle that the letter constituted an “eleventh-hour attempt to intervene in an active Vancouver City Council debate,” and that if the province intended to change its building standards, it should provide clarity on the matter.
An overwhelming majority of the speakers who addressed Sim’s motion in council were against it, arguing it flew in the face of moves to reduce fossil fuel emissions.
Dr. Melissa Lem, the former president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, said that previous analyses have shown that building new homes with all-electric heating options was cheaper or the same cost as using natural gas for heating.
“Even if it were cheaper to build with gas, this vote is just a handout to wealthy developers at the expense of everyday people’s health,” she told CBC News.
“We know that cost savings are not passed on to home-buyers, because they only pay what the market can bear. So this is just more money in the pockets of developers.”
Dr. Melissa Lem, former president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, said she hopes voters remember the city’s backtracking on green policies during the municipal election in the fall. (Ben Nelms/CBC)