6 Oct 2025 Council meeting Housing

Manufactured Home Communities - Electrical Capacity Assessments

Motion

That Council endorse the criteria for issuing up to three complementary manufactured home community electrical capacity assessments as outlined in the Staff Report titled “Manufactured Home Communities – Electrical Capacity Assessments”, dated 2025-OCT-06.

Minutes, page 9

Sources

Agenda itemCity agenda, whole meeting

Staff reportPage 1

Purpose

To provide Council with an update regarding the Manufactured Home Community Energy Efficiency and Emissions Reduction Strategy, and to seek support for the criteria to be used to offer three complementary electrical capacity assessments.

Staff report, page 1

Staff recommendation

That Council endorse the criteria for issuing up to three complementary manufactured home community electrical capacity assessments as outlined in the Staff Report dated 2025-OCT-06.

Staff report, page 1

DocumentsStaff report about Environment & Natural Resources

Questions and answers

Councillor Erin Hemmens
Yes

asked

questions on this council. Councilor Hemmings, please. Thank you, worship. And thank you, Mr. Holmes. Forgive me if I'm. Not quite understanding here. But each assessment is going to cost about 6000. We're going to have three assessments that's $18,000, but the budget is $54,000. Is that to retain? The

asked

Consultant to create the criteria by which. We will assess the manufactured home park, others in administrative component to it, and I think we might be a bit low on

City staff answered

the estimates. I think it was 5000. Was per. So we might be a little bit low, so we're being a bit conservative. But, yeah, there will be some administrative work. That the additional funding will support as well. Okay.

followed up

And will that administrative work help? Us make these decisions faster and better next time. It's setting up a structure for us. To use going forward. Is that accurate? I

City staff answered

think that's fair to say, although. I think. I'm not sure that we'll be needing to repeat it necessarily. We're going to learn from this and as well, BC Hydro will learn from this. It's meant to be applied more broadly. As a case study or a pilot to see. How this might benefit other mobile home communities across the province. So there will be learning as part of the investment and. Hopefully the lessons can be applied to mobile home communities in Nanaimo and then more broadly across the

Councillor Ian Thorpe

followed up

First, thanks. I appreciate that, your worship. Through you, if I may. A curiosity. Question. Because I recognize in the report that this refers specifically to manufactured home parks, but I've heard the same frustration from various strata developments across the city. Is there any plan in the future to maybe look at those areas as well? And I understand this is a BC Hydro issue. It's not a city issue, per se. But it's still important. Yeah. No, thank

City staff answered

you. Through your worship to councilor Thorpe, that's. A great question and point to make as well. Challenges around rental buildings as well as strata. Older buildings that. Didn't have the capacity. Built in can be very expensive. Top grade. Strata is obviously the have control over. Improvements that can be made to the building, whereas. A tenant in a rental apartment building doesn't necessarily. Have influence or control over that as well. So definitely some challenges. And work to do in that area. I know there's other programs that are looking at and that's a provincewide issue as well. And like you said, BC Hydro. Challenge as well. There is work being done in that area. It's not something that the city is focused on specifically at the moment, but. We do reach out. And identify. Opportunities to work. With landlords, and we do have a on smaller scale. Councils approved. The funding of program. For individual homeowners to do improvements. Through. A third party lending program. We're applying for grant for as well as. The property assessed community energy. Clean energy. Sorry, lending program as well. But it's a larger nut to crack. On the stratas and the larger apartment buildings as well, but this should give definitely some insight. Onto how. We can help the mobile home communities as well. A lot of those were identified. As many of them. Have oil heat source, so there's a fairly significant. GHG reduction there much shift to a much cleaner fuel. As well. There's the added complexity with a mobile home park. The tenants. Actually, there are tenants that rent the mobile homes, but they're also the owner's own mobile homes. Within the park. Yet they don't have control over the servicing to the park so this is an area. that Really needs some attention. And hopefully this will help improve equity. To those that want to make that switch and improve. Their or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, improve. Their affordability for heating and cooling and comfort. Thanks,

Councillor Ian Thorpe

followed up

Mr. Alma. I appreciate that. And it sounds very worthwhile, and hopefully it might provide a little bit of information or a roadmap. For. Other others to use in future.

Councillor Janice Perrino
Yes

asked

Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Brino. Thank you, worship. And a question through you to Mr. Homath. I'm struggling a little bit understanding this. I have a friend who happens to live in Nanaimo in a mobile home park, and she has a heat pump. So. Are we trying to figure out the capacity? So if I lived in a mobile home. In one of the mobile home parks. Why wouldn't I just do it on my own? Yeah, good

City staff answered

question. Through your worship. And not all parks will be serviced. Some probably have more. Modern, higher level of electrical infrastructure, higher capacity infrastructure. So they're not all going to have the same challenges, but. It's the capacity of the infrastructure within the parks. Some of them aren't up to capacity to provide. Electric vehicle. And heat pump. I got you capacity. Although. There's real and then perceived challenges. So some of it is trying to get. To what are the real challenges and what are the perceived challenges? Some of it might just be a communication and information. Barrier. But you're right. There are parks that do have sufficient capacity. To support. Those options already and others that don't. And some of the others that don't. Obviously there's an equity piece there. And ability. Of those owners. To influence the park upgrades and then reluctance on the park owners, given their limited understanding of what's required to upgrade to