Opinion: CleanBC report's recommendations would make building and operating homes and businesses even more unaffordable

The British Columbia government received an important report on energy policy in late November that — if adopted — would make both building and operating homes and businesses even more unaffordable in 2026 than they already are.

Sound hard to believe? The B.C. Coalition for Affordable Dependable Energy (B.C. CADE) thought so too. Our members are diverse and range from homebuilding firms to unions to small business organizations, collectively representing over 300,000 British Columbians.

And to us, the CleanBC Review Report is extremely disappointing and tone deaf to the affordability concerns of households, renters and small business owners, who are already facing higher costs and enormous challenges at a time of high tariffs, inflation and economic uncertainty.

Most concerning is that the report urges the provincial government to continue allowing municipalities to move ahead of the province by adopting of the Zero Carbon Step Code early. In practice, that effectively bans renewable natural gas and natural gas in construction of new buildings and creates an expensive patchwork quilt of regulations across B.C.

It simply doesn’t make sense that what a developer or construction company can do in Surrey or Port Coquitlam, they cannot do in Vancouver or Burnaby.

But that’s the current situation. Each individual municipality can decide to not only adopt the Zero Carbon Step Code, but also which level will apply, and then force new homes and buildings to meet those rules.

Forcing builders, businesses and people who live in those homes to rely on only one energy choice to heat and operate their homes and offices — electricity — doesn’t make sense when there are cost-effective alternatives.

With both the provincial and federal governments eliminating the consumer carbon tax on natural gas and gasoline at a time when B.C. has been forced to buy over $2 billion in electricity from the U.S. and Alberta in the past two years — much of it coming from non-renewable fuel sources — why does the report recommend the most expensive and least dependable approach?

The ongoing drought that has seen low river and snowpack levels in B.C. for over two years has already dramatically reduced B.C. Hydro hydroelectric dams’ ability to generate enough power to provide for the province’s needs. And even if the weather improves, electricity demand from population growth, electric vehicles, bitcoin mining, industrial expansion and everyday consumer choices is still driving substantial new electricity needs.

It is telling that all of the power generated by the new Site C dam is already spoken for, while the $16-billion cost of that project has not yet been included in your B.C. Hydro bills.

Unfortunately, the review panel did not act on multiple submissions from a wide variety of business and labour organizations representing hundreds of thousands of employees, urging them to make affordability and choice the prime concern for provincial energy policy.

And the problems with this report don’t end with the Zero Carbon Step Code.

It also recommends banning the replacement of all existing natural gas space and water-heating equipment sold and installed in residential and businesses by the early 2030s, which would force home and business owners to buy more expensive electric equipment.

When condominiums and offices need to replace their existing heating systems, they would have to go to the costliest electric option instead of high-efficiency, lower-cost natural gas systems. And when those costs go up for building owners, they are usually passed through to tenants in the form of higher rents, fees and strata charges.

British Columbians are struggling right now. They need choices and predictable bills, not higher costs with no alternatives.

To be clear, B.C. CADE supports the move to renewable, sustainable energy. But it cannot proceed so quickly that our economy and jobs suffer serious losses. British Columbians should be trusted to choose how best to meet their needs while making the transition everyone wants to see on a reasonable timeline.

The coalition hopes the provincial government recognizes these important facts and rejects a CleanBC Review Report that is simply out of step with the needs and concerns of British Columbians just trying to get by in difficult economic times.

Bill Tieleman is director of the B.C. Coalition for Affordable Dependable Energy, with members in businesses, business and union organizations.