Item - 2024.IE18.12

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:

1. City Council authorize the Executive Director, Environment and Climate to negotiate, enter into and execute an agreement with The Atmospheric Fund to facilitate the transfer of certain funds that the City will receive from the Natural Resources Canada’s Codes Acceleration Fund, on terms acceptable to the Executive Director, Environment and Climate Division and in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor.

In April 2023, an application was submitted to Natural Resources Canada in response to a call seeking proposals to the Codes Acceleration Fund with the goal of accelerating the adoption and implementation of the highest feasible energy performance tiers of the national model energy codes or other high-performance building codes, such as net-zero emissions codes in Canada. The Environment and Climate Division, in conjunction with The Atmospheric Fund, submitted a proposal to support the development of building emissions performance standards, evaluation of codes performance, and sharing knowledge with other municipalities.

On February 7, 2024, the City entered a non-repayable contribution agreement with Natural Resources Canada with the potential to access a financial contribution of up to $2.7 million over three years. The Environment and Climate Division requires authority from Council to act as a conduit to provide funds to The Atmospheric Fund for specific activities under this agreement with Natural Resources Canada.

I am writing to request that City Council authorize the appropriate agreement to be entered into and executed so that the funds can be transferred for the work done by The Atmospheric Fund.