Government of Canada and FCM support City of Mississauga energy audit

Wladyslaw, Lizon, MP for Mississauga-East – Cooksville, on behalf of the Honourable Greg Rickford, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, and Raymond Louie, President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and Acting Mayor of the City of Vancouver, BC, today announced a Green Municipal FundTM (GMF) grant of $175,000 to the City of Mississauga. The city put the funding towards an energy audit to identify energy efficiency and conservation opportunities for improvements and enhancements at more than 100 of Mississauga’s municipally owned and managed facilities. The audit will serve as the basis for a five-year energy conservation and demand management (CDM) strategy, as required under Ontario’s Green Energy Act.

“Our Government is helping municipalities across the country to achieve their goal of a cleaner and healthier environment for their citizens through the Green Municipal Fund,” said MP Lizon. “Today’s announcement is another example of how our government — in partnership with the FCM — is helping communities like Mississauga build a greener future for our citizens.”
“The Green Municipal Fund offers a range of resources and services that specifically addresses the sustainable community development needs of municipal governments,” said Mr. Louie. “The financing and knowledge provided by the fund support the development of communities that are more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.”

Based on the energy audit’s findings, the city will study the feasibility of advanced energy efficiency and renewable energy measures, such as high efficiency lighting retrofits (including light-emitting diodes), heat recovery, high-efficiency equipment, solar water heating and solar photovoltaic panels, as well as more conventional strategies and technologies. The audit will complement a city energy benchmarking program that has led to operational and maintenance improvements at 17 energy-intensive facilities since 2012.
The study’s final recommendations will be based on environmental, economic and social impacts. The city hopes those recommendations will help it achieve its objective of a 30 per cent reduction in energy and water consumption (relative to 2012-2013) that will pay for itself within ten years.

Energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies are highly replicable and the study results easily shared, so the benefits of this initiative will be felt across the community, province and country.
“The City of Mississauga is committed to working with senior levels of government to secure new funding opportunities for our local priorities, like the Green Municipal Fund,” said Mayor Crombie. “The Green Municipal Fund will also help us put in place a plan of action to make Mississauga more environmentally sustainable, economically responsible, and energy efficient with the operation of city-managed facilities.”

This project is an exciting example of how funding from GMF can be combined with funding from other sources — in this case, the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator’s saveONenergy program — to improve municipal infrastructure.
The Government of Canada endowed the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) with $550 million to establish the Green Municipal Fund. The fund supports partnerships and leveraging of both public and private-sector funding to reach higher standards of air, water and soil quality, and climate protection.

FCM has been the national voice of municipal governments since 1901. It fosters the development of sustainable communities to improve quality of life by promoting strong, effective, and accountable municipal government.