City councillor’s award a ‘responsibility’ to prioritize net-zero plan

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Shanon Zachidniak doesn’t know who nominated her for a national environmental advocacy award, but she’s grateful for the recognition — and the platform to talk about making Regina greener.

Zachidniak recently received the 2025 Clean50 Award for her work as a city councillor to advance sustainability initiatives on the city level both in Regina and across the country.

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“It’s a really prestigious award that, honestly, I’m really honoured to receive,” she said in a recent interview. “I care a great deal about sustainability and our environment, but I certainly didn’t expect to win a national award for the work that I’ve done.”

Selected from a pool of more than 1,000 nominees, Zachidniak is being acknowledged for the way she has championed free transit for youth as well as her work on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund Council, which distributes grants to member cities for projects furthering zero-emissions goals.

And, perhaps most notably, she was recognized for co-chairing the expansive consultation process for the City of Regina’s Energy and Sustainability Framework — an ambitious plan to see the city become net-zero by 2050.

That’s what she most wants to discuss when asked about her award-winning achievements.

“This framework is not just an environmental plan — it is an economic plan for now and for our future and, if we follow it, it will make people’s lives better. All of these efforts are about creating a better future, for Regina and for all of us,” Zachidniak said.

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“And I think this work is really important in Saskatchewan, where we have some of the highest GHG emissions per capita in the entire world. We have a lot of work to do here.”

The framework was unanimously approved by council in 2022 with little public opposition — a result Zachidniak felt made council’s priorities crystal clear on climate-change mitigation, and spoke to the breadth of work done to craft the path forward.

If all goes according to plan, Regina’s framework is expected to do away with an annual 5.4 megatonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, create 4,000 local jobs per year and deliver an overall financial return of $12.5 billion by 2050.

But according to the city’s first report on emissions targets, progress is already falling behind after its first year of implementation.

A 2023 end-of-year update shared in October reports that while GHG emissions from city-owned assets declined by one per cent year-to-year, overall emissions were still 12-per-cent higher than the target set for that year. Estimated community emissions were also 10-per-cent higher than targeted.

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Zachidniak said to already see a gap forming between actual emission levels and the framework’s targets is concerning, especially because in order to hit Regina’s net-zero pledge in time, emissions need to drop 52 per cent by 2030.

“We have an ambitious plan and if we fall behind at all, it’s just going to make it that much harder to actually achieve our goals,” she said.

When administration noted in the 2024 budget that progress on advancing sustainability initiatives was at risk of stalling without more investment, Zachidniak said it raised a red flag.

She wants to see more commitment to the framework’s success — whether that’s by prioritizing initiatives internally or looking to alternative funding sources to ensure action keeps happening.

“The progress report and this award makes it clear to me what we need to be doing,” Zachidniak said. “We are falling short (and) I think, somewhere along the line, the importance of following this plan has gotten lost.”

The city has made efforts to advance the framework’s seven “big moves” over the first year of the plan, like the introduction of an energy-efficient retrofit incentive for homeowners, an anti-idling policy for city crews, electric vehicles (EVs) in the municipal fleet, and a new process (food and yard waste collection) to divert compost from the landfill.

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Regina’s landfill also has a system converting methane gas into energy and the Buffalo Pound Wastewater Treatment Plant is now using a biogas capture system to achieve reductions in emissions and energy-use levels.

More actions began in 2024, according to an emailed statement from the City of Regina provided Thursday.

Construction is planned for net-zero recreational sports courts and the installation of solar panels at four city facilities that will add 87 additional kilowatt-hours of power generation capacity. Transit service hours were expanded and a contract was linked to begin replacing diesel buses with EVs.

City council also landed federal funding for a geothermal facility to heat the proposed new indoor aquatic centre, plus $35 million from the Housing Accelerator Fund, which aligns with densification goals in its mission to boost the housing supply in Canada.

Studies are also underway on more retrofit programs, an expansion of the landfill’s gas collection system and the conversion of Fire Station #8 into a net-zero building.

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While having anxiety over missed targets may seem premature to some, Zachidniak said there’s a lot of riding on this work. She stressed the importance of sticking to the plan and committing fully to its success.

“Our framework is held up as an example other municipalities can follow and I think we have a responsibility. People are looking to us as an example of a success story,” she said. “There’s a lot of work left to do and … I feel a responsibility in receiving this award to make sure that we put our actions behind the plan we created.

“I hope the city feels that responsibility as well.”

— with files from Alec Salloum, Jennifer Ackerman

lkurz@postmedia.com

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