County Council Supports Implementation of Regional Energy Plan

Essex County Council supported a Regional Energy Plan in principle Wednesday night and directed Administration to begin pursuing its recommended strategies to address climate change and reduce local energy consumption and costs.  

The Regional Energy Plan was coordinated by the Essex Region Conservation Authority in partnership with the County and funded with provincial grant money. It was developed over an accelerated timeline of 18 months by a task force, comprised of a broad cross-section of community and industry stakeholders, that only held virtual meetings.

The plan calls for an increase in community-wide energy efficiency of at least 50 per cent by 2041 over 2019 levels and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 60 per cent by 2041 over 2019 levels.

The development of the plan was driven by a growing local urgency to address and mitigate the causes and impacts of climate change, including flooding, shoreline erosion and the increased frequency of severe weather events. It recognizes the potential for job creation and economic growth through improved energy efficiency and the opportunity to repatriate energy dollars that currently flow out of Essex County to Western Canada or elsewhere in Ontario.

“The cost of doing nothing far outstrips the cost of meeting the climate challenge head on, of working as a region to improve energy efficiency and reducing emissions while creating new jobs and building a more diverse and sustainable economy,” said Warden Gary McNamara, who chaired the community task force.

“The status quo is not an option. This plan sets ambitious energy efficiency targets and will serve as both a road map and vehicle to help us achieve them. We need to take action for our youth and the generations to come.”

The County of Essex, local municipalities, community members – including youth – and representatives from utility providers plus the construction, agriculture, greenhouse and energy sectors were involved in developing the plan. All will need to play a role in implementing the plan and achieving the targets, says the final Regional Energy Plan report.

The plan sets out five priorities that should be completed by the end of 2025:

1. Establishing a governing group to oversee the implementation of the plan, as well as separate entities to oversee key aspects. This includes the formation of a body responsible for facilitating retrofits of up to 80 per cent of homes to make them more energy efficient, a greenhouse growers energy services cooperative and a district energy entity.
2. Aligning all county and municipal plans and land use strategies with the goals of the Regional Energy Plan.
3. Developing integrated energy master plans for a manufacturing cluster and a net-zero community that uses the same amount of energy as it produces from renewable sources; a bioenergy master plan; and a community-level e-mobility strategy.
4. Developing a program to increase energy and climate literacy and action.
5. Creating a “smart energy region” by measuring and reporting on progress implementing the plan, as well as ways to improve it over time.

The strategies outlined in the plan put Essex County on the pathway to achieving an estimated $28 billion in cumulative energy savings by 2050. Pursuing these strategies collectively as a region will drastically reduce our emissions and allow us to build a greener and more diversified, sustainable economy.

“We are ready. We can do this. As youth in this community we know that this plan is important,” said Cara Braun, a member of the Windsor-Essex Youth Climate Council. “We already seeing the worsening effects of climate change happening around us and worry about what this means for us all in years to come. When we think about our future we want to be able to envision an Essex County that is a sustainable, efficient and beautiful place to live. But for this vision to become a reality we need to take steps now.”

Read the Executive Summary

Read Regional Energy Report #4: Summary and Implementation Strategy

Learn more on the Regional Energy Plan website