The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care (the Coalition) is pleased to release the final two Energy Management Best Practice Case Studies resulting from a collaborative training and energy management initiative with First Nations health care staff in the remote northern James Bay communities of Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, Kashechewan, Moose Factory and Moosonee. 

Together with the Coalition’s HealthCare Energy Leaders Ontario (HELO) team and the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA), and with funding support from Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), First Nations facility operators are now displaying a new sense of pride and ownership in WAHA’s 19 major health facilities including hospitals, clinics, ambulance bases and multiple residential housing units.

For the past two years, the Coalition and HELO have been assisting WAHA in improving their energy management expertise through the provision of facility energy audits, development of business cases to support building and HVAC system upgrades, implementation of improved energy monitoring and tracking practices and the delivery of energy management training opportunities. 

Senior leaders at WAHA are seeing first-hand the benefits of their decision to embrace improved energy management practices and train their staff by way of ongoing energy savings, improved health care facility infrastructure, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and greatly increased local energy management capacity in the remote northern First Nations communities WAHA serves.

“The results,” says HELO Lead JJ Knott, “is a First Nations facility management team that is better educated and highly confident in their abilities to tackle a broader spectrum of building and facility management issues including HVAC, lighting and controls.”  

“There is now far less need to bring in expensive technical support from outside the James Bay communities, thereby reducing maintenance costs for the health organisation and reinforcing the tremendous skill set that now exists locally.”  

Case Study #2, First Nations Health Care Staff Graduate Building Operator Certification Training Improving Technical Skills in James Bay Communities, outlines the success of bringing improved local technical capacity to remote northern communities and speaks to the commitment by local First Nations facility staff to become energy champions; influencing others and improving patient care environments through sound environmental stewardship and climate change resiliency practices.  

Case Study #3, Building Operator Training in First Nations Communities Delivers Infrastructure Improvements, Energy Savings and Enhanced Technical Skills, recaps the tangible results of numerous energy management and retrofit projects including lighting upgrades, steam trap audits resulting in paybacks of less than 1.5 years, and the installation of a new summer boiler at the Weeneebayko General Hospital.

Also highlighted is the importance of investing in people and how the six recent graduates of the Building Operator Certification (BOC) program held in Moose Factory have improved their job skills in multiple core areas including energy efficiency, lighting, indoor environmental quality and HVAC controls fundamentals.

Four of the six graduates can pride themselves in being Canada’s only First Nations BOC graduates. 

The first Energy Management Best Practice Case Study was released in August 2018 and provided an assessment of WAHA’s $1.4M window and door replacement project delivering projected annual savings of over $126,000; with annual fuel savings of 75,557 litres of oil and avoided CO2 emissions estimated at 206,650 kg. 

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