Montreal Could Ban All New Gas Stoves & Natural Gas Hookups
The days of toasting marshmallows over your stove could be coming to an end.🔥
A gas stove burner.
A Montreal commission has published 25 recommendations for Mayor Valérie Plante's administration aimed at reducing carbon emissions from residential and commercial buildings and institutions, which, according to the commission, account for more than 25% of all emissions in the city.
Among the recommendations are calls to ban the installation of new gas appliances, including gas stoves (recommendation number four), ban new natural gas connections (two) and, where possible, phase out existing fossil fuel heating systems (three).
To get there, the Commission on Water, the Environment, Sustainable Development and Large Parks also recommends creating a registry of all existing fossil fuel appliances (recommendation four) and establishing a system of incentives and disincentives to motivate property owners to meet these objectives (six).
It further raised the possibility of launching a public financial support system "that takes into account economic and social considerations to ensure a just transition for the most vulnerable populations and that the impacts of the costs of the energy transition do not fall unfairly on the lowest-income residential building owners, tenants [and] merchant-owners" (recommendation 14).
The commission also says the city should find a way to ensure replaced fossil fuel appliances aren't dumped in a landfill and are instead "revalorized" in a "responsible, ethical and environmentally friendly manner, in line with circular economy and sustainability principles" (recommendation nine).
Finally, the commission is pushing the city to advocate for a provincewide new natural gas hookup ban (recommendation 19) and updates to Quebec building and construction codes to "[exclude] the use of fossil fuels" (21).