PORT MCNEILL, B.C.- The Regional District of Mount Waddington will be saving some big money thanks to funding from the government of British Columbia.
The province is supporting local governments and First Nations investments in projects that will help lower energy costs, create more affordable and sustainable community infrastructure, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Chilton Regional Arena in Port McNeill will benefit from the funding. Its Zamboni ice resurfacer will be converted from propane power to solar-charged/lithium-ion battery electric power.
The upgrade is estimated to save around $9,000 per year in operating costs.
“The Zamboni project was first proposed to the arena committee as just a conversion to replace the existing 20-year-old unit,” said chair of the Regional District of Mount Waddington Andrew Hory, in a provincial release.
“However, by fundraising with corporate and private partners and with provincial support, we were able to come up with this innovative machine, which saves us money and will help bring our arena service to operational carbon neutral in 2018.”
Four other communities in B.C. are receiving funding for projects.
These include energy efficient retrofits to community-owned facilities in the District of Clearwater and the Township of Langley, a run-of-river hydro project in Wuikinuxv Nation and a solar-energy system in Xeni Gwet’in First Nations.
The total funding for the projects is $620,000, with $482,000 coming from the Community Energy Leadership Program (CELP) and $138,000 coming from the Remote Community Implementation (RCI) Program.
