It was a close vote and heated debate before Port Moody council came to its final verdict: the city's new fire hall will be built to LEED silver standard without official certification.

Coun. Diana Dilworth pushed for silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for the new Fire Hall No. 1, with the potential $100,000 cost included in the project's budget.

"Port Moody has been a leader in environmental actions and initiatives for decades, and we're falling behind when it comes to ensuring that our civic facilities are constructed and certified to the highest standards of environmental and sustainable excellence . We encourage developers who come to Port Moody to be as sustainable as possible in their developments, and we rate them against a sustainability checklist. But it's pretty difficult to ask them to build to LEED standards when the city can't set the example by doing it itself," Dilworth said.

"As long as the fire hall project has been on the books, I've said that we have one chance to do this right - and by right, I mean building to an environmental standard of excellence and getting a third-party certification to prove it and be proud of it.

"We lost our chance to be a leader on the building of our public safety building, on the rec centre. I don't want to lose that opportunity now to showcase our commitment to excellence in sustainable civic practices. I don't want to be looking back years from now saying 'We shoulda. We coulda.'"

Coun. Rick Glumac agreed with Dilworth and said he'd like to see the certification increased to gold standard.

However, Coun. Gerry Nuttall said he did not want to spend the extra money on the certificate.

"I'm not prepared to increase taxes and increase the cost of this project for a certificate to be hung on the wall because that's the only purpose that it serves," Nuttall said.

"We've heard from our project manager that there would be no difference in efficiencies that will be realized by having a certificate or going to that level of compliance."

Coun. Rosemary Small echoed Nuttall's comments.

"I think we have to be fiscally responsible here, and I don't see that a piece of paper is going to guarantee us anything. We have staff that are fully qualified to make sure that this building is built to LEED standards and I trust them," Small said.

"I don't think we need a piece of paper to say that we have done so or somebody from outside to tell us that we have done so. I fully believe that we should build this building to silver LEED standards and that it would cost us way too much money to get it certified."

Dilworth's motion was defeated in a 4-3 vote, with Couns. Small, Nuttall, Bob Elliott and Zoe Royer against it. Dilworth voted in favour of the motion, along with Glumac and Mayor Mike Clay.

As well, council asked staff to explore the grant application process for additional project funding.

jmcfee@thenownews.com

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