NEWS BRIEFS overall year to year construction permit volumes. Overall, year to date (January to September), the totals are $1.61 billion in issued permits, compared to $2.1 billion last year. Bill 73: New rules could double transit related costs for Ottawa new home purchasers – creating a 12-fold difference John Herbert, executive director of the Greater Ottawa Home Builders’ As- sociation (GOHBA), has sent a letter to Ontario community services minister Yasir Naqvi outlining the association’s concerns about the proposed legisla- tion to amend the Planning Act that, if passed in its current form, sets the stage for a potential doubling of Ot- tawa area home purchasers’ transit re- lated costs. The letter, sent on Sept. 10 follow- ing consultations on Aug. 21 with GOHBA representatives, outlines the concerns the association has about the legislation’s impact on housing afford- ability. In the letter, Herbert suggests the current true cost of transit (including development charges, interest on the higher homeowners’ purchase costs, and the regular taxes that everyone has to pay) is $10,638 in the suburbs, com- pared to $1,785 for existing homeown- ers – a differential of six times. Herbert, along with past and current GOHBA presidents Pierre Dufresne and Bob Ridley, attended the meeting. CONSTRUCTION ACROSS CANADA Bill 73 would allow the city to dou- ble these costs, he indicated. “One of the biggest contributors to the affordability challenge has become development charges,” Herbert wrote. “We believe that it is critical to open a discussion on alternative methods of fi- nancing municipal infrastructure. One example of this problem is the cate- gory of transit charges in both the De- velopment Charge (DC) Bylaw as well as the additional amounts that will come into effect with Bill 73. (The government introduced the legislation in the spring, and it has been referred to the Standing Commit- tee on Social Policy.) QUEBEC The Edelweiss House in Wakefield, Quebec, becomes Canada’s first LEED v4 certified building and the second LEED v4 Platinum certified home in the world The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) has announced that Eco- home’s Edelweiss House project, a passively heated, cold climate demon- stration home in Wakefield, PQ, has become the first project in Canada to earn LEED v4 certification. Edelweiss is not only the first proj- ect in Canada to be certified under LEED v4, but it has also earned the highest level possible – Platinum – making it only the second LEED v4 home in the world to reach LEED’s merk@merx.com 18 – November 2015 — The Canadian Design and Construction Report www.merx.com most rigorous level CaGBC says. The hyper-efficient cold climate house boasts an average price tag and an extremely low operational budget. The 1,522 sq. ft. home, 40 minutes from Ottawa in the Gatineau Hills, cost less than $250,000 to build and its en- ergy bills are estimated to be less than $1.40/day. In comparison, a standard new home of comparable size con- sumes roughly 10 times more energy. The Edelweiss House was designed and built by Emmanuel Cosgrove and Mike Reynolds, co-founders of Eco- home. “We don’t really build anymore as our mission is education,” they say. “We undertook this project to show builders and homeowners that it isn’t that hard or expensive to build better performing homes, and that your true monthly overhead can actually be lower, right from the moment you move in.” The home will now be used for full day workshops, as well as for short- term rentals that allow building profes- sionals or future homeowners to experience the comfort of a passive solar home first hand. “The Edelweiss House is a phe- www.merx.com/events