After hearing from over 140 public speakers, Vancouver City Council on Wednesday evening effectively moved to continue its natural gas ban for the heating needs of new homes in the city.
This decision also marks one of the rare instances where the ABC Vancouver party-led majority on City Council has voted differently, instead of voting along party lines.
Whenever there is a tie vote in City Council, the question does not pass. It was a 5-5 vote, with ABC city councillors Rebecca Bligh, Lisa Dominato, and Peter Meiszner joining Green Party councillors Adriane Carr and Pete Fry in opposing the move to remove the ban. Those who voted in favour of removal were the other ABC members, including city councillors Sarah Kirby-Yung, Mike Klassen, Brian Montague, and Lenny Zhou, as well as Mayor Ken Sim.
OneCity councillor Christine Boyle was absent from the decision, as she will be vacating her seat in the chamber soon to become the new MLA for Vancouver-Little Mountain and the BC minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation.
If it had been approved, builders would have essentially been able to choose between natural gas or electrical equipment for a new home’s heating.
The heating of homes relates to both space heating and hot water, as cooking using natural gas would still be permitted.
Since January 2022, the City of Vancouver has required low-emission (electric) equipment for space and hot water heating in new low-rise residential buildings.
City staff were initially directed by City Council in July 2024 to draft policies that restore the ability for natural gas heating in new home construction, with City Council at the time narrowly passing a member motion by Montague in a 6-5 vote. At the time, Dominato supported rescinding the ban.
However, City staff in their recommendations noted that enabling natural gas could “fall out of alignment” with the provincial government’s standards soon, as early as 2026, when the provincial government is expected to require municipal governments across BC to follow the Zero Carbon Step Code.
City staff also asserted that providing the natural gas option for heating needs would not improve affordability for builders and homeowners, when compared to electricity.
“I’ve learned that the affordability argument doesn’t pencil out in this proposal to reverse current city policy,” said Dominato. “The capital costs of heat pumps and the operating costs of the equipment over the long term will cost the same and in most cases, less than natural gas.”
In the weeks and months leading up to this week’s deliberations, there has also been a clear divide over what such a ban removal would amount to for climate change impacts.
“Why is the decision so important? There are three reasons. The threat of climate change, the city’s reputation and our economy, and our children’s future,” said Green city councillor Adriane Carr during the deliberations.
“In terms of climate change, I don’t know if all of you around this table believe that we are in a global climate crisis… I don’t think we should refrain from action because it’s a global issue, not a Vancouver issue. It is a Vancouver issue because it is both global and local. We produce GHGs, we’re part of the problem.”
However, most of the ABC members in the body agreed that such considerations are well beyond the control, influence, and mandate of the municipal government.
“Even if we shut down the City of Vancouver, it won’t make a difference in decreasing the rate of change of global worldwide temperatures. Knowing that, when we take a balanced approach, and I understand we have to signal as the City of Vancouver, but at what cost?” said Mayor Ken Sim.
“It would be really easy if there was simple answer, but in the real world we make judgement calls and there are tradeoffs. When I look at what cost, we can send a signal but we won’t have any material impact, and the cost — it’s real, it’s affordability.”
Where there needs to be broader considerations beyond municipal control, Klassen suggested the need to give greater weight to considerations such as how the proliferation of additional electrical equipment for heating in homes would impact BC Hydro’s electrical supply, and the resiliency of the grid.
“Vancouver is not an island. It only extends from Blanca Street to Boundary Road to the north arm of the Fraser. Our city is part of a wider metropolitan region of 2.7 million people and a province of over five million people and we share the climate,” said Klassen.
“That’s why I kept my questions to staff largely focused on things that are ultimately not in our control here at City Hall, such as the availability of energy supply across BC’s grid in the face of rising demand from industry and demand from consumers, the goal and the cost of carbon intensity of imported power, and the spectre of increasing rates to repay BC Hydro’s significant debt and the downloading of cost of industrial energy to Vancouver rate payers.”
Klassen also brought up how similar policies in Norway have led to residents in that country now using up to 15% of their disposable income to heat space and hot water in their homes.
The meeting also saw City Council approve City staff’s recommendation to provide an energy and carbon performance compliance path aligned with the top level of the BC Zero Carbon Step Code for small residential buildings, and the second highest level for large buildings, starting on March 1, 2025. It was approved in a 6-5 vote, with Klassen, Montague, Sim, and Zhou opposed.