Let’s be honest. There are some conferences where all you want is to get back home or to your hotel room. Maybe the subject matter isn’t up your alley, or the room is too warm and making you drowsy. Maybe both.
But every once in a while, you attend a conference that leaves you buzzing with excitement, wishing there were more hours in the day to connect, learn and share. The second annual Canada Home Energy Justice conference certainly falls into this category.
The Ottawa Climate Action Fund was honoured to sponsor the event as a community partner, and I had the privilege of being a plenary speaker. I took the opportunity to share the work we are doing at OCAF at the intersection of climate action and housing affordability.
OCAF is developing its new strategic plan that includes two key priority areas: ”Reno-protection” – retrofits in naturally occurring affordable private-market housing without displacing tenants, and “Fill it First”- how we can develop Ottawa differently, in a way that provides housing options closer to where people work, learn, and socialize.
I was thrilled to hear of the tenant protection work ongoing in Toronto and elsewhere, seeking to elevate the voices of tenants and other vulnerable populations who are advocating for climate action. This is precisely the focus of OCAF’s Reno-protection work here in Ottawa, which aims to tackle retrofits in often-overlooked small multi-unit residential buildings that are home to many lower income tenants.
OCAF is planning to continue this work, but additionally, take a stronger role at ensuring these efficiency upgrades to units or entire buildings do not result in “renovictions” or above guideline rent spikes. Going forward, it will be incredibly valuable to build pan-Ontario networks to share learnings and amplify advocacy efforts.
OCAF’s Fill it First program is a land-use focus to new housing development. While climate-focused efforts to build new homes to a higher, and lower carbon, standard considers how we build, Fill it First concentrates on what and where we build, with targeted policies and programs to add gentle density in existing neighbourhoods to drive down emissions and costs associated with transportation and more intensive home energy use associated with urban expansion.
Adding new homes that are more attainable and reduce emissions goes hand in hand with the retrofit acceleration, workforce development and policy advocacy many speakers touched on at the conference.
This conference brought together an incredible group of individuals from the intersecting worlds of climate change, energy, housing, Indigenous reconciliation and social justice focused on how to alleviate energy poverty across the country while also achieving our climate change targets.
On a personal note, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the final, bittersweet moment from the conference was a fantastic send-off for Abhi Kantamneni, whose time with Efficiency Canada is coming to a close. Although his humility would never let him admit it, Abhi is largely responsible for the two iterations of this amazing conference, as well as tremendous progress on energy poverty across Canada.
This was the kind of conference that had me leaving with pages full of “to-dos” and follow up conversations. But more importantly, it was the kind of conference that left me feeling hopeful, energized and excited about the future of the work OCAF and many others are doing. I know I am already counting down the days until next year’s gathering.
