Prince George City Council gave the first three readings of a renewed agreement between the City and Lakeland Mills Ltd. for energy supply to the Downtown Renewable Energy System at last night’s (Monday) meeting.
According to a staff report to Council, the original agreement had expired in 2022. The new term retroactively commenced on July 1st, 2022, and continues until December 31st, 2026 with two additional renewable years for 2027 and 2028.
The Downtown Renewable Energy System distributes heat to nearly a dozen downtown buildings, including City Hall, Canfor Leisure Pool, and more.
The system uses sawmill residuals or wood waste to heat water that is pumped through more than three kilometres of underground piping.
Councillor Brian Skakun asked about what would happen if Lakeland lost it’s fibre supply, to which Mayor Simon Yu replied they would switch to natural gas.
“If we were to fully function on gas, there would be some operational requirements and some regulatory rules that we would have to meet through staffing and accreditation of the operators,” said Director of Civic Operations Blake McIntosh.
Director of Finance and IT Services added the energy system reduced approximately 1,800 tonnes of CO2 by having district energy, roughly 20 per cent of the organization’s output.
Councillor Trudy Klassen said fibre supply isn’t the issue.
“For those of use who were at COFI, we heard there were at least a few people who said ‘hey wait a minute, Prince George has tons of fibre,'” she said.
“As we figure how to do permitting better and getting better access to wood and maybe doing some innovation like thinning in our forests that will have not only the effect of giving us enough fibre for our district energy supply, but also maybe prevent forest fires or help to mitigate forest fires.”
The agreements will come back for final reading and adoption at a later date.
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