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Qualicum Beach want to measure community’s emission levels

Councillor hopes province will provide funding
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The Town of Qualicum Beach plans to gauge the emission levels in the community.

A motion was passed unanimously at a special council meeting, Aug. 24, directing staff to research cost estimates for a third-party report on corporate and community-wide emissions, to research opportunities for grant funding systems and refer the item to 2023 budget and strategic planning process.

The discussion on emission was first raised by Coun. Scott Harrison, who made a notice of motion from the Aug. 10 regular council meeting. He hopes staff members will come up with a report that would indicate the most impactful

Coun. Anne Skipsey agreed it is valuable to have all the information on emission levels but added it is going to be a costly undertaking.

“Looking at our emissions is a good idea and there may be some surprises and maybe even some fairly easy wins,” said Skipsey.

READ MORE: Parksville receives $127K in annual provincial climate funding

Last April, Skipsey said she received an article from a resident that highlighted small off-road engines. The article pointed out out that by gas-burning lawn mowers and leaf blowers have already been outlawed in a lot of cities and towns in the United States. In 2024, they will no longer be sold in California.

“The reason why, because they are surprisingly a large source of carbon emissions in air pollution,” said Skipsey. “According to the California Air Resources Board just one hour of gas leaf blower use is the equivalent of driving 1,100 miles. And running a gas mower for one hour equates to a 300-mile drive.”

Skipsey hopes the province would come up with some funding to help reduce the cost to the town to have both corporate and community emission levels measured and analyzed.

Coun. Teunis Westbroek said he did not realize the negative impact of an hour of leaf-blowing to the environment. He feels this information is valuable.

“A lot of people may pause and think about that,” said Westbroek.

Michael.Briones@pqbnews.com

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Michael Briones

About the Author: Michael Briones

I rejoined the PQB News team in April 2017 from the Comox Valley Echo, having previously covered sports for The NEWS in 1997.
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