Saskatoon city officials provided an update Wednesday on the city’s Low Emissions Community (LEC) plan, clarifying they won’t be reaching the targets set for 2023.
Director of sustainability Jeanna South said the impact of COVID-19 has slowed down progress and kept many smaller initiatives in the planning stage.
The latest report indicates “…the city and community are not currently on-track to meet the interim GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions reduction targets of 40 per cent and 15 per cent by 2023.”
South said despite setbacks, there are some positives for the community.
“It is worth noting that the per capita GHG emissions decreased 15 per cent between 2014 and 2019,” South said. “On the other hand, looking at our corporate or City of Saskatoon GHG emissions from civic operations, services and facilities, there was a five per cent increase between 2014 and 2019.”
Twenty out of 30 of the city’s plans have been enacted. Only nine of those plans show major progress and one has been completed.
South said plans currently in the early stages are expected to show noticeable improvement in emissions once they are enacted.
“We’re not at the point yet where we get to start to see those emissions reductions,” South said Wednesday. “When those things are operational and working at scale, that’s when we would get to see some of those changes.”
Other initiatives include a program to make homes more energy efficient, and the bus rapid transit system, which will make it more convenient for people to use transit.
South says part of the discussion going forward will be to decide which initiatives require detours or alterations to reach the community emissions targets outlined by council.