As reported on CTV News, the Saskatoon Homebuilder’s Association applauds the incentives laid out in the city’s 30-year plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – but cautions against setting a building standard in an industry where the only constant is change.

“When we mandate work on the current housing stock, we already know from the association that it costs three to four times more to renovate to (the new) standards than to build to that standard,” CEO Chris Guerette told City Council on Monday.

She told council a new building code from the National Research Council is handed down every five years and the next cycle for building standards is coming to light in 2020 and will be introduced to the City of Saskatoon in 2021. She cautioned the city against mandating building codes ahead of this cycle.

Once building codes are updated in Saskatoon, it’s a good idea to implement these standards regionally to battle price disparity, she said.

“This needs to be a provincial collaboration. If we’re going to lead, we can’t have nobody else behind us.”

The city’s plan calls for a carbon footprint reduction of 15 per cent by 2023 and by 80 per cent by 2050. The plan also aims for the city as a corporation to reduce its emissions by 15 per cent in 2023 and 40 per cent by 2050.

The plan calls for an investment of $19 billion over the next 30 years, focusing on 40 plans for action to reach those GHG emission targets. According to the city, the plan would save the city a net of $33.6 billion over that same period. Those plans include a citywide solar strategy, organics recycling and a community plan for building efficiency.

Council heard from several speakers at Monday’s meeting regarding the plan.

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