By Adam Ophus

PACE

Rocky taking steps to be an environmental leader

Oct 2, 2019 | 4:13 PM

Rocky Mountain House continues to push forward in becoming an environmental leader and has started discussing a new bylaw for the new Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program.

The new program would allow residents to take out a loan from the town that will be added to their property tax and payed off through an installment plan.

While discussing the bylaw during a town hall meeting, councillors asked Chief Administrative Officer Dean Krause how they can stop those from renting or leasing a property from just leaving.

“It has to be the property owner, because it is tied to the property taxes” responded Krause.

As of right now, if a home is sold the cost of the plan would pass on to the new owner and would need to be discussed with the buyer.

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The town is looking at allowing one application per person, with multiple projects allowed on an application, but wants to limit the burden on administration.

“It’s kind of an odd process, Energy Efficiency Alberta (EEA) is the middle man, people apply to EEA, then they come back us, then we send it back to them, and then EEA gets back to the individual applying,” Krause said while describing the application process.

With max applications for residents at $50,000 and businesses at $500,000, councillors shared their concerns over the amount of financial struggle this potentially could cause for the town.

“The grant will be attached to the property, so one of the highlights of this program is even if we have to carry the money for a couple of years until whatever the issue is gets sorted out, will we will always recover the funds.”

One of the recommendations from EEA was to have residents pay an additional cost for a post audit to see how much energy the project is saving, and to add that cost to the total loan amount.

“I don’t want this to be a thing that will hold people up from taking part in the program,” Councillor Jason Alderson shared his negative feelings of adding additional cost to residents.

“Couldn’t we just take your bills and look at three months before and three months after,” Councillor Dave Auld said giving a much cheaper and simpler solution to the problem.

The town hopes to have first reading by November, and a public hearing will be required before they can pass second reading.

Krause finished by saying they plan to have the program fully active by 2020.