Imagine affordable housing units in Bruce County using only five to ten per cent of the energy a unit uses now.
That’s what former Commissioner of Bruce County Social Services Dick Verrips presented to county councillors on Thursday.
Verrips is now a board of director with the Social Housing Services Corporation, a body that was legislated provincially when social services were downloaded to the municipalities.
He says one of the arms of the agency is called “Greening for a Better Environment.”
Verrips says it’s basically a group that is interested in promoting energy conservation and energy efficiency.
He says the group has looked all over the world at what other countries are doing in social housing and in Europe they discovered a program called “Retro 10.”
Verrips says it means an affordable housing complex could end up using on 5 to 10 per cent of the energy usually consumed in buildings constructed under normal building standards.
He told county councillors he believes Bruce County could lead the way in this type of environmental construction or retro-fitting.
Verrips says there are lots of opportunities in the county to conduct such a program.
He says this could become a model on the way affordable housing should be built and really could be applied to the housing industry in general.
Of course, Verrips admits there will be a cost to this leading edge housing but he believes there will be funding available.
He hopes to come back to council in April with more details on such a project.
Councillors were in favour of that especially if meant potentially saving 90 to 95 per cent of their affordable housing energy costs.
