All right, well, good afternoon everybody. Like I said, this is Dave Maronian here with the Climate Action Secretariat and we're just going to get rolling here. I know a few folks are still joining, but they're late, so that's their fault. The purpose of today's webinar is to share information about the second year of the local government climate action program. And the main role for this session is to make sure that everyone's familiar with the reporting requirements and the process for year two. And maybe before I get too far down the road, we don't usually use Zoom for our meetings. So I'm just going to ask to make sure that everyone on the line can actually hear me speaking. And if you could just give a thumbs up in the chat or say yes, that would be most helpful. And we'll make sure we know that we can actually see what's going on. Do we have any thumbs up in the chat? Yeah. Okay. Thanks, everyone. It's working. Just so you folks know, in the room here is myself, Dave Maronian. We've also got Yahali Klein who will be presenting. And lurking in the background is Ken Porter, who will be helping with any questions that come up. And then also Anna Cautier is in the background giving us tech support and keeping track of the comments and questions and so forth. So we'll all be here going along through this presentation. Over the next hour, the plan is to do this presentation should take about 20 minutes or a little bit less possibly. And the plan is to leave lots of time for questions afterwards. And we're going to talk initially about the Clean DC Roadmap and just provide context to the program, a little bit of background, a little bit of updating of information that we've talked about through our engagement sessions we had recently. And then we'll get into the program details. Next slide, please. Hi. As I get started here, I'd like to respectfully acknowledge that we are speaking to you from a traditional territory, territory of the Fungan people, also known as the Slanghees and the Squimalt peoples, whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day. As you can see, we've got an agenda here. It's not really an agenda. It's sort of a table of contents of the slides. Like I said, we're going to go through some background information and then get right into the LGCAP program and the specific requirements that were set for year two of the program. And then at the end, we will have questions and answers. And a little bit of housekeeping. Just so you folks know, the webinar is being reported and it will be posted on the LGCAP website shortly after this. We do have the live transcript function enabled in Zoom, so you can use that if you need close captioning as well. Our plan is to go through the presentation and not open it up to questions until the very end. If you have questions during the presentation, feel free to put them in the chat and we will go through them all once the presentation is over. And if by chance we run out of time, we will have all the questions hopefully from the chat and we'll follow up afterwards. But we've allowed lots of time for questions, so we should get through all of them. In the next slide, please. Here you are, Hallie. Yes, thank you. Just a note that during the question and answer, the easiest thing to do besides using a chat of all folks, you can just raise your hand in Zoom and unmute yourself and ask the questions. So when we get to that point, we'll remind you again about that as well. Okay, so to get started here, I think a lot of the folks in the call took part in the engagement sessions we did over the last few months at the start of 2023, but just a little reminder of what happened there. Between January and the end of March, we did a province-wide engagement process on the LG CAP program. And the main purpose of that engagement was to really talk about the program itself because we didn't get a chance to talk about setting up the program last year for the first year. And we wanted to get feedback from youth folks on some key factors and components of the program, which we will run through today. And as you'll see, we've also made some decisions on a few changes to year two as well from year one. Along with that engagement, we also had consultants from KPMG who helped us set up the engagement and also provide some reports to us on a few different topics. And one of the main things was they gave us a report basically on what we heard through the engagement. And that has allowed us to really help answer some of the questions that came up about how we should structure year two and make some changes. And that's based on all the feedback we had during the engagement workshops, which was really, really good. And I'm going to throw a little thank you to everyone that participated in those sessions because we had good frank discussion on a range of topics, and that's really helped us to be able to fine-tune the program for year two and to make some of the decisions we had to make around some of the key components, such as corporate reporting, which we will get to a few more slides in the presentation. The consultants also gave us a report on one of the topics, which was around regional hubs and peer-to-peer learning networks. And that was a major piece of the work that was done. And we are still in the process of sifting through that report and making decisions on how we want to move forward with that and support that moving forward. So we don't have any news for you on that front, but stay tuned. We will shortly have that. And one of the things which we'll be using really forward is that we talked in the sessions about maybe developing an LG Cap newsletter. And the first one's going to be coming out probably in May at some point. Early May is what we're aiming for. And we'll have updates in there as well. So there will be news to come on how we're going to try and move forward with supporting regional hubs and more peer-to-peer learning. And just one last thing that I wanted to mention was that, yeah, during the engagement, we had over 200 staff from local governments and modern treaty nations take part in the sessions, which is really widely such a success. We had great turnout and, again, excellent participation, which was really, really helpful. So, next slide, please. So one of the things that we also talked about, sorry, I'm messing up my slides here, the basis for the program here is the Clean BC Roadmap, which was developed, you know, originally back in 2018 and updated to be the Clean BC Roadmap to 2030 in 2021. And that document, I'm not going to go into big detail on it, except to state that it sets out a series of eight pathways to support innovation in sectors where low-carbon solutions are emerging and to really drive deployment in sectors where, you know, where those solutions are already mature. And it's also setting out a pathway to achieve GHD reductions, but also to move resilience and adaptation forward as well. And on this slide, these are the eight key pathways that were set up in Clean BC with, you know, with direct actions to achieve reductions. And the community's action is really where LGCAP came out of. One of the components of that was setting up a local government climate action program to support communities and to change the structure of the funding method that went out in the previous care program. So that's what was used in year one, and that's exactly the same process we're using in year two. And I believe, and someone here can correct me if I'm wrong, but the funding that goes out in year two is going to be the same as year one. All the heads are nodding, so yes. You can expect the same funding in year two that you received in year one. So next slide, please. During our engagement sessions, we spoke at length about what we came to talk about kind of the climate action top 12 actions. And these were things that we felt was, you know, how communities can get the best bang for their buck in terms of achieving good GHG reductions and mitigation efforts. And part of this is also explaining, you know, from our end, you know, we wanted to make sure that we can demonstrate that LGCAP is showing success. And we realized that in some cases, certain communities, especially smaller ones, you know, may have difficulty achieving, you know, big GHG reductions and meeting all of these types of actions. But we have stressed that, you know, these top 12 are examples of the key things that we hope communities can look at as ways to really make, you know, measurable progress. Not to say they're the only ones, but ones that we've, you know, again, are going to give the biggest bang for the buck. And it's worth mentioning as well that the LGCAP survey has been structured in such a way that, you know, a lot of the detailed questions we ask around things that you are doing to achieve climate action are based, you know, in a large way around these 12, you know, types of actions as well. So that's why we wanted to put these up as a reminder and show people that, you know, if people are thinking about the types of actions you can take, you know, these are a good starting point. And also noting that one of the things we learned and really was driven along the engagement sessions we did is that there is a big difference between the larger communities in the province and the small and small rural communities, you know, in terms of capacity and ability to take action. And so we have to, you know, we are definitely respectful of that with how, I know, how we look at a practical approach to what communities can actually do. Next slide, please. I wanted to go through a little bit about climate risk assessment and just a quick summary of where we're at. Again, we went through this in the engagement sessions, but we have a little bit of news to provide that's recent over the last month here. I won't go into detail on the provincial strategic climate risk assessment except to state that that was completed in 2019. And right now the province is beginning work on the next version of that provincial strategic risk assessment with an expectation that that's going to be complete hopefully in summer of 2024. And that's to meet the requirements of the new Climate Change Accountability Act, which requires five-year reporting. And that risk assessment for the province will have to be updated in five-year intervals moving forward. So it has to be complete by 2025 to meet those legislative requirements. That provincial assessment is now being combined with the provincial HRDA process, so hazard risk and vulnerability assessment. It is going to be done together with that. So right now they're just working on the framework to complete that. And we still don't have details on exactly how that's going to work, but it is expected to be complete by hopefully summer of 2024. A piece that is new around this is that following that provincial assessment are going to be regional assessments. Now, when I say regional assessments, that has not yet been defined exactly what those regions will be, but there's been a clear acknowledgement that that provincial assessment did not really provide useful information for use at a local level or a smaller regional type of level. So the province will be undertaking regional type of assessments that we expect to have completed by 2026. And the reason why that's important is that the intent is to have these regional assessments inform more local assessments that will be done following that. And in our workshops, we were assuming that after 2024 is when there may be a requirement for local authorities to do the wrong risk assessments. And it's most likely that that's not going to take place so after the regional assessments now. So there's a little more time to prepare. And I'll talk about that a bit more in the next slide. This next slide is related to the first one in that right now, as this provincial assessment is being done, the province is working on changes to the Emergency Program Act. And that's important because in the new legislation to come out, which is expected for spring of 2023, will be this new requirement for local authorities to complete a risk assessment. Now, what's going to happen right now is that that legislation is expected to come in spring or early summer of this year, and they're gonna be drafting the accompanying regulations for that throughout this year. And we expect now that the regulations will come into force in probably mid to late 2024. And after that is the time when these regional assessments will be taking place. And again, the point to take away from this is that there's going to be a fair bit of time for local authorities to prepare for those regional assessments or local assessments that you'll be required to do. And by the time the regional assessments are completed by the province, there'll be much more information available. And again, we don't have a lot of details on this yet. The regulations have not been drafted, but we're working with the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Resilience to help develop those. And we will share information as soon as we have it on how that's moving forward. So again, there's a lot in there and please ask questions about it. But the key takeaway is there's going to be no requirement to do any of this immediately. And also EMCR is going to be setting out to do some engagement on this later this year. So we'll have more news about that coming up as well. Finally, the last thing I wanted to speak about is just to draw your attention to some information and funding opportunities which would be of interest. I want to draw your attention to the new Climate Ready BC webpage. The address is here and it is a new site which the province is developing on funding and supports to make communities more resilient. Take a look at this page because it's got a lot of good information on it. And as it's getting further developed, it's meant to be a real hub for collaboration and for sharing of information out there which is going to help communities be able to do risk assessments and further work, especially around mitigation. So there's a lot of information in there already and we're going to be adding to it. I just wanted to quickly mention the Community Emergency Preparedness Fund which received a boost of $180 million in the last provincial budget. And these funds are being administered to UBCM. The web link is there. And these are a variety of funding streams that are intended to enhance resiliency for communities. And then finally, again, draw your attention to the Community Climate Funding Guide which is at the website again on the page here which is a great source or resource to look for finding opportunities for local governments and indigenous communities across the province. Last thing I want to mention is that since we completed our engagement, as you're probably aware, the province has provided $1 billion for community infrastructure to all communities in the province through the Growing Communities Fund. So huge amount of dollars have been provided for infrastructure funding. It's not climate-specific, but it certainly can address incorporating climate factors and considerations into retrofits and new infrastructure. So again, if you have questions about that, let us know. But just want to make sure you draw attention to that. I've been talking for probably longer than I should have. So I'm going to turn it over to Heli to get into the details on the Local Government Climate Action Program. Thank you, Dave, and hello, everyone. So now with all of that in mind, we'll dive in to the program itself, run through kind of at a high level, the scope of the program and then details on what to expect for reporting for this second year. So the key here that we really want to stress is that the funding for the program, which is about 24 million per year for this first three years that we have funding is intended to be very flexible. So funds can be used just for example, certainly not a complete list, but for staffing, for contracting and workout, for infrastructure, for matching funds from other sources. Funds can also be put in reserve year over year. And we ask that if you do that, that all funds are spent by the end of March, 2025. Dave mentioned that we'll have a newsletter, one of the objectives of the program in addition to enabling flexible, locally based climate action is to enable knowledge sharing. So we hope to do more of that as time goes on. Next slide. So as I mentioned, about 24 million per year, 76 million overall, this is a new source of funding for modern treaty nations. And compared to the previous program called CARAP, all communities receive more funding than they did under that program. The funding that was received last year in the first year is annual. So the same amount of funding will be received this year and next. And we certainly hope moving forward into the future. So if there's anyone who isn't sure about that amount, there was an initial official letter sent when the program was launched. The amount is stated in there. You can always reach out to us and we can easily let you know or connect with your finance folks. We'll include the email address at the end of the deck, but it is lgcap.gov.bc.ca. So a little bit about the funding formula. Every community has a base amount of $40,082. And then on top of that, there is a population amount per capita allocated and the formula specifically allocates funding to more equitably provide funds to smaller communities to support capacity as much as possible. Also, if you have more questions and want more details on that funding formula, please don't hesitate to reach out. We'll also have an FAQ document on the web page, on the lgcap web page that details the formula there. Okay, so the survey is the way that we collect information and have you complete the reporting requirements for the program. A little bit about what to expect this year. We are always looking for ways to streamline and make this program just more straightforward and simple on our end, but largely for you local government staff. So we did pick a new tool to administer the survey this year. It's simple survey and had some staff from a range of small, medium, large governments across the province participate in user testing. So thank you so much for those of you who participated and gave us very valuable feedback. One thing that is simpler this year compared to last, if you did participate in reporting last year, is last year we had an attestation form separate from the survey. This year it's all one. The attestation is at the end of the survey and it is all submitted in one go. Also for preparing for reporting, we have or will have shortly posted on the webpage a word version of the survey that you can download and use to collect information from staff across departments internally and prepare for when the online version goes live, which is May 16th, but we've got a slide about heat eighths coming up. So stay tuned for that web version. We are updating the webpage and we'll have it available in the next week or so. Okay, so more detail about the actual requirements of the program. So the most significant change that we've made based on what we heard in our engagement sessions is around corporate emissions reporting. So if your community has population of 15,000 or more, then that is a requirement for the second year and going forward. We have a ton of resources available that will be available on the webpage to support that and are always here for questions and to guide as much as possible. So do reach out and let us know if you have any questions. Other than that, these reporting requirements are essentially the same as the first year.  We are happy to say that all local governments in BC are now signatories to that charter. And we ask same as last year that at least one project, one action aligned with the Clean BC Roadmap or the climate preparedness and adaptation strategy is reported on. And so that is anything in the realms of buildings, transportation, any community wide action associated with climate and or resilience slash adaptation. So you'll see on the survey that there is space to share initiatives with us that we may look to highlight in our annual summary report that will come out in the fall. One more thing to note that when you come to the end of the online version of the survey, you'll notice that there is an option to click to download your own copy. There's a PDF and a word version. So please do that. And that can be used to then make it public. And that can be done either on your local government webpage through council minutes, excuse me, or social media or all of the above. And the deadline for that will be the end of September. And if something happens and you shut the page and you have not downloaded it, please just let us know. We're happy to get you a copy. All right, so I think I've covered all of this essentially. So to reiterate, really we say two components to complete reporting requirements that's completing the online survey and attestation form that is integrated. An email will go out to your designated primary contact that we have on file just before May 15th with a unique URL and instructions. The URL can be shared amongst multiple staff, but just note that only one person can actually be in there inputting information at a given moment in time. So hopefully that works for everyone and you can click save at the bottom if you want to finish up your component and pass it on to a colleague or come back and finish it later. So May 15th is when the survey will go live and the window goes until July 30th at 4 p.m. That's our deadline and then like I mentioned, end of September to make the survey and attestation form public. If there is any challenge with these timelines, please don't hesitate to let us know. Wanted to make one more point here. Oh, so the actual content of the survey that does need to be made public is all of the questions in the survey that are required. However, many are optional. So please feel free to go in and modify the format of the survey that you make public. You can change the look and feel of it as long as the actual content of those required questions and responses are included. Hey, almost near the end here. Hopefully we'll have lots of time for questions and discussion. A note that once our webpage is up to date, you will see a host of documents there to support completing the reporting. So program guide, I mentioned the, it's called survey template, but it's the word version of the survey will be up there frequently asked questions. FAQ document will post the recording of this webinar as soon as we can along with the slide deck. There is the address of the LGCAP page there, but if you just Google LGCAP, it should come up quickly. And I think that's all for that next slide, please. So we also have all of these documents available here to facilitate corporate missions reporting. We want to make sure that everyone's aware there is a webinar dedicated to this specifically on the 10th. If you did not receive an invitation to register, please reach out and let us know at LGCAP.gov.bc.ca and we'll get that out to you. If you do have questions about that today, then we're happy to respond, but also know that there's that time dedicated really to dive into the details. And so you'll see here, for example, on the list, one thing that is new is the corporate emissions inventory reporting tool. So, I don't know if there are questions about that, we'll answer them in the Q&A. All right, so last slide, key dates to reiterate. Again, May 10th, let us know if you want to register for that webinar. May 15th to July 31st, reporting period. Again, reach out if there are challenges with that timeline. Funds, I did not mention yet, funds will be dispersed. Here it says end of August. I think it's fair to say end of August, first week of September funds will be distributed and that's through an electronic funds transfer that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs does for us. So expect that. And again, please by September 30th, post the survey and attestation form publicly. Thank you so much. And we will now turn it over to you folks for questions. Please enter in the chat. Anna has been monitoring the chat or raise your hand and let us know if you'd like to be unmuted. I don't know if you want to mute that one. I'm not a Zoom expert, but I am looking to figure out how to enable video. Okay, I don't need the video. I hope everyone can hear me. So we've had a few questions come through. I'm gonna go with what I know came in earliest. Does the 15K population baseline include First Nations communities? It does, however, there are no modern treaty nations with populations even getting close to that number. So it is an optional requirement for modern treaty nations. And will the LGCAP contact you have on file be made aware when the funds are dispersed? We don't have that on our list of to-dos, but certainly happy to do that to make sure that everyone's aware. So yes, thank you for that. Okay, and then in the chat here, I'm gonna scroll back up. So this question is kind of funny that it says it came in from Yeheli Klein. So I think this was related to our Zoom issue earlier. So someone would have got in here earlier, first, Keener, and it labeled you as Yeheli Klein. So the question is if regional district is population only the electoral area. I'm not sure if we might need some clarification on the question or if that feels... That makes sense, yeah. Yeah, hi, Roland. It's Ken Porter here. So the populations for regional districts, the way that those are accounted for is all of the minimums and qualities in their populations are removed. And so it's only the unincorporated areas that constitute the populations for the regional districts. Beauty. Okay, I'm gonna see if any follow-ups came in for that. Oh, someone said I can't hear him. That was hard to hear. We'll try that again. Okay, sorry about that. So yeah, hi everyone, it's Ken Porter. And for that question on regional districts, so for the population for the calculating the amounts, member municipalities populations were removed and only the unincorporated areas were used to calculate the populations for the funding for the regional districts. The reason this was done is because we wanted to ensure that all funding would be equal to or above the previous climate action revenue incentive program funding and this formula allowed that to be the case. Beauty. Okay, so we have a question here. Does making it public include a required presentation to and resolution from council? I don't think so. Nope, I'm not sure if there are internal requirements in local governments, but we don't require that. Yeah, it's only if that's required internally. On your end. So as I recall, the survey is for reporting on actions. Oh, look at, oh, no, nevermind. We're about to try my video, but it's not wanting to work. So as I recall, the survey is for reporting on actions and the testing that the required local government money contribution has been made. Is there any guidance provided or pending for reporting details of how LG cap funds are being spent? So that matching, the 20% matching requirement is no longer, I should have mentioned that. We have taken that off of the list of program requirements. We do though ask in this year's survey how funds were spent. So there is ample space to let us know and please do because that information will be very important for us when we go back to Treasury Board to request that this program is continued. Does that answer the question? If not, please let me know. And I would just add to that, as we said, during our engagement sessions, this program was a commitment made by the Minister of Environment Climate Change Strategy, the previous Minister for Municipal Affairs and our previous Premier to be a long-term continuous program. So all government budget cycles are set forth that every three years you need to go and you need to essentially re-op. We're wanting to be well-equipped to substantiate the program to ensure it's continuity and growth, but the commitments have been made to program will be around. And I'll just, I'll chime in. I'm not sure if there's a couple of questions in there. In terms of what we're looking for and to answer that question on how funds were spent, we're not looking for like a detailed budget breakdown of a project or something, but what we need is basically a description of what was the fund used for? It was used for it contributed to a project to retrofit a municipal building, for example, or it was used to hire staff or to hire a contractor or consultant to carry out a risk assessment, things like that. We're not looking for minute details about every dollar, but we're looking for the types of actions that took place where the funds were used and hopefully either results that were achieved or what you are expecting to achieve. So hope that makes it clear. Perfect, and I actually see you've got a follow-up question there. So we've given you the option to speak there, Liz. Hi, thanks. Yeah, thanks for that. I'm just wondering if you can provide any, like we totally don't mind reporting on how we spent the funds. In fact, that helps, I think that helps our internal process to kind of keep some rigor and accountability. So can you just, is there any, like you could do this offline, but if there's any way you can send us like the fields that you'll be requesting in the survey in advance and any more details about how you want us to report on that. Like a drop-down list of categories, is it, do you want amounts, do you want any more details would be really helpful. We've been trying to navigate our internal process and with our finance team is very keen to know what the requirements will be. Sorry, getting some echo feedback in the room here. Our intent is on the 15th for all of those materials to be live. We have a comprehensive package with our program guide or frequently asked questions, our website updates, our measurement resources, the templated version of the survey that will all be going live on May 15th. That's our intention. I will, for lack of a better term, call it the launch date. So all of those resources will be available on that date. Okay, thanks. Awesome, so, ooh. So we have a follow-up question in here for you, Ken. So for regional districts, this is on the question we asked earlier on Electoral, yeah. So for regional districts, would EA population numbers include First Nations, reserve land populations in the EAs or without? Okay, so I think the way I'm understanding the question is and bear with me because it will get perhaps a little detailed here. Reserve lands can intersect both municipal boundaries and unincorporated areas. And so the way that we've distinguished this once again is to take unincorporated area populations and use those for the calculations for regional districts and then municipal populations from municipal areas and then from modern treaty nations made resources to calculate modern treaty nation populations. But when it comes to indigenous land that intersects these areas, we're taking the populations that we're seeing within the unincorporated areas or the municipal boundaries. I'm hoping that provides clarity to that answer, but please do follow up if that's not the case. Stats 20-20. Yeah, thank you, Ali. We use BC stats as our source on that and that's all documented in our program guide how we portion populations and also in our frequently asked questions. And Ken, maybe it makes sense if we find a question. Ken, can we not maybe just include our list that we have right now, showing all the communities and districts and their populations as we have for based on that 20-20 data? Because that could be your resource we can share so everyone understands exactly about looking at the same thing. Yeah, absolutely. I think that would be another useful resource that we could post just so everyone has an awareness of the population figures that we're using. Additionally, where it says benefit because we're asking everyone with a population to over 15,000 that they meet the requirement for corporate inventories and everyone below 15,000 population is being encouraged, strongly encouraged, but it will not be a requirement for reporting. Just for everyone to see the population figures that we're using, I think it would be quite important. So we can look at posting as a resource on our AlgaeCal website as well. We'll have it linked in the program guide, but for ease of access, we can include it as a separate document as well. All right, the next question I see here, 2022 guidance provides both 10% and 1% as a limit for refrigeration gases. Can you speak to this difference? So the good news, where they'll get into the technical details of corporate measurement is that we've significantly short up our resources. We heard loud and clear in our engagements that if corporate measurement was to be a requirement, that there will need to be superior resources and supports in order to do so. So Yahali showed in her slide that there was a significant number of resources that will be forthcoming. We're also going to be doing the corporate measurement webinar dedicated hour and a half, if I recall correctly, to that topic. And additionally, as Yahali mentioned, we will have a corporate measurement tool. And I don't want to provide delusions of grandeur here. It is an Excel simplistic tool that you can punch in aggregated numbers to come up with emissions. And we're hoping that that will be helpful. But at the end of the day, we're hoping to simplify things. And in regards to your question on refrigerants, we provided further clarity if it did not come through in previous years. Refrigerants for a local government climate action program are not on the scope due to the challenges in quantifying them. So your stationary and mobile refrigerant emissions are not required, but once again, we'll never discourage if you're wanting to add more because you can track the measurement. Nice, thanks, Ken. Okay, next question here. Can the public survey responses be provided in a format that contains all content in the response, but without any of the questions answered? Just to make sure that I understand the question is, can the responses be posted without the questions themselves? Okay, Ken, do you want to take that one? Yeah, I know. I think our view is that the public posting want to remain consistent across all organizations for the local government climate action program. What we've been asking everyone to do is provide the questions with the responses and the public attestation. Not being said, one thing that we provided further clarity towards this year is for some of our optional questions, those do not need to be publicly posted if you're providing information that you do not feel comfortable with publicly posting. Okay, next question here. Is it correct that the corporate emissions reporting will need to be completed by July 31st so the emission amounts can be provided in the survey? That is correct, yeah. Nice. Okay, our board wants to spend funds on electric vehicles. Sadly, these are backordered for one or two years. So how do we report on this? We put a deposit down in weight. This is a challenge that I think exists not only for electric vehicles, but for probably many other project types. And what we're asking is, in our survey, please let us know what you think your projected emission reductions will be. We recognize these projects can take time, but we want to be able to point towards what is either going to happen, what has happened, it was projected to happen. So we're asking to the best of your ability to provide detailed information and reporting. And are there any existing or expected requirements for community emissions reporting? As it stands right now when it comes to community energy emissions, we're working internally to actually provide better information from a common action secretary perspective. I think in our engagement sessions, what we mentioned to many of you is in its public, we had a request for procurement that recently closed, we're doing assessments to see how we're going to proceed forward. But we have dedicated budget, staff and time to significantly enhance our community energy emissions and inventory data that we provide for local governments around British Columbia. At this point in time, I would say we don't have additional requirements upon local governments when it comes to community energy emissions and inventory data, recognizing the complexity that exists. That being said, we know that many of you are doing all of that at a community level than the province is, and we encourage you to continue doing that work. And if there's any ways that we can support or learn from you, please do so. And next is the new corporate reporting tool mentioned on the slides referencing the new GHG accounting reporting software. It is not. It is an Excel tool that we built in-house with our staff. Once again, I want to emphasize this is a simplistic Excel tool where you can punch in numbers, your fuel consumption, and we've set forth where you punch those in, and it will calculate your emissions for you and it will just aggregate. There's a section for your directly delivered services and your contracted services. So I look at it as a simplistic calculator, but something that we hope is a resource that can help those who struggle with doing corporate measurement. And another question here. I may have missed it, but can you confirm that the 28-day survey availability online, once the unique link had been accessed for the first time, has been removed from this year's reporting regime? We're very pleased and excited to say that that is no longer part of our program. So by using simple survey, there is no expiry date of your qualitative surveys. You do not need to worry that if you don't complete it in a certain amount of time, it will expire. Exactly. Start it when you want, finish it if at all possible by July 31st. And again, reach out and let us know if that deadline does not work for you. Next question. By only using electoral area populations in the funding calculation for regional districts creates the unintended consequence of making it difficult to spend on corporate-wide initiatives. So Stephen, I'm not sure if you have a question in there, but if not, noted. We have a fundamental awareness of the challenges that have existed in the funding model and how it's been viewed. I think what's important to note, I think he's been saying repeatedly, is the funding is more than previously existed under the Climate Action Revenue and Center program. And in that instance, regional districts were provided with that funding with the same flexibility to incorporate it into either the corporate infrastructure or in their member municipalities or unincorporated areas. And so it continues to be the same case, but with funding augmented. So we just want, I think we want to focus on the fact that funding has been augmented. This flexibility remains a key component to that funding in that, I think the funding calculation, we recognize because we say it's the unincorporated areas that there's this view that it can be allocated to such, but we're not providing the direction on how the regional districts can apply the funding. Now, I hope that provides clarity, but I know it's something that's come up time and time again. Nice, thanks, Ken. Next question here. Is it a requirement to use the new GHG reporting tool or can local governments use other tools? Local governments can use any approach they want to conduct corporate measurement. Some may choose to use the Excel tool we've provided. We know many are using their own tools or approaches. Some are going to market through their conventional consumer processes and there's the utmost flexibility in how you want to approach your corporate measurement. We just ask that you follow the measurement scope boundaries and quantification methodologies that we'll be posting. What discussions have you had with municipal affairs to integrate the proposed and upcoming legislative changes to land use planning and development finance? Lots of opportunities for synergies. Absolutely, and there is lots of conversations happening in that regard. I think one thing that I want to make clear is our role as a secretary is to work across the entire province of British Columbia when it comes to climate action with local governments. So you can rest assured that any facet of climate action that you see coming from the province of British Columbia that we are working collaboratively, it's not just municipal affairs, we're working with emergency. What is the acronym again? PMC, which is emergency management and climate readiness. There's working with energy minus local government innovation and administrative transportation infrastructure on clean transportation action plan. We're connected on all of these and how our program interacts with that, but also everything we hear from you is local governments from treating nations in British Columbia and how we can bring that back to the work we're doing in climate action with the province. I know that's not a direct answer on specifically municipal affairs and what's going on. I don't want to speak on where to ask. If I say we are working with them there is no words going on. And will the corporate reporting webinar, oh, be recorded posted? Yes, sorry, I answered that one in the chat. Yes, so May 10th, the corporate reporting webinar will be recorded and shared and posted to our website. There was one up here. Okay, are corporate emissions reporting to include contractor emissions? They will and we've provided resources to try and once again simplify this, recognizing the complexities that we're allowed in our engagement process on contracted services. So please note that there will be calculator and a guidance document that will provide guidance on how to estimate your emissions associated with contracted services in relatively simplistic manner as opposed to having to get all the fuel consumed by individual contractors or columnarist driven. So you have your statement of financial interest and do you want to make some simple assumptions that will suffice for your contracted services emissions? And we'll be talking about more in detail on our corporate inventory webinar. Nice, does anyone else have a question they want to share in the chat or in the Q and A? Oh, here we go. Oh, nope. And you can always email us lgcap at gov.bc.ca. Going once, going twice. Cool. Yeah. So I just want to say thank you everyone for taking time out of your day to attend your insightful questions and we're primed and ready to go as we launch on May 15th. We'll continue to be very responsive to the lgcap inbox. So please don't hesitate to follow up with any questions, concerns, thoughts, ideas. We know we're making modifications to the program this year. We continue to want to know what's working what's not working and provide support to ensure everyone can successfully meet the requirements of the program. So thank you. And if there's one more question I think we can bring it to a close. And thanks for putting up with our little zoom hiccups. The whole thing was recorded. So for those of you who might have missed the first five or so minutes you can see Dave kicking us off in another time. Thanks everyone. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone. Thanks.


Hello Columbia and welcome to This Week in the City. Highlights brought to you from the Public Relations Media and Marketing Department with the City of Columbia. I'm your host, Alicia Utsi. We want to remind all citizens that you need to mask up Columbia. A mask ordinance is an effect within the City of Columbia city limits and you must wear a mask in facilities, buildings, etc. And definitely in crowds where you have no ability for social distancing. For details regarding our mask ordinance, please visit our website at colombsc.gov and check out our social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for our mask FAQs. For equally asked questions to help you learn about our mask ordinance and mask regulations. Please be reminded that this is the last week for the October Pet Adoption Special. Your furry friends can come home with you for only $20 each, dogs and cats. If you are interested, please call our animal shelter at<PHONE_NUMBER> that's 776-PETS or visit our website at colombsc.gov. On Wednesday, October 27th, please note that you can receive free COVID-19 vaccinations at Melrose Park located at 1500 Fairview Drive from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. on that date. All vaccines are free and the Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines will be available at that location. Please join us on Wednesday, October 27th for the ribbon-cutting ceremony to be held at TS Martin Park. The Parks and Recreation Department will be hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony at TS Martin Park, located at 1010 Lincoln Street. The ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held at 3 o'clock p.m. in the afternoon. It's time for Ghost Goblins and Pumpkins, and it's also time for the City of Columbia's annual Spooktacular, just in time for Halloween. The City's Parks and Recreation Department will be hosting a drive-through Spooktacular Halloween Party. On Saturday, October 30th, from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m., at Dutch Square, located at 421 Bush River Road. Again, this is an outdoor event with a drive-through Spooktacular for all. The event is free and is open to kids and adults and families. Come out and enjoy free music, food, prizes, and lots of fun for everyone. Also on Saturday, October 30th, come out to the Columbia Police Department's Harperson Fall Festival. The Columbia Police Department will be hosting a Harperson Fall Festival on Saturday, October 30th, from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. The festival will occur at 100 Columbiana Circle, which is near Columbiana Mall, near the Dillard's entrance. Well, that wraps up this week, Columbia. Thank you for joining us for this week in the city. Highlights brought to you from the Public Relations Media and Marketing Department with the City of Columbia. Please contact us if you need any further information about events this week. You may email us at pio at columnsc.gov, call our office at 545-3020, and you can also follow us on social media for the latest updates on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as on our website, columnsc.gov.