On Jan. 9, Mayor Siemens and Minister Harjit Sajjan announced more than $4.45 million in federal funding for the Abbotsford Recreation Centre’s (ARC) Heat Recovery and Optimization project (HeRO) through the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings fund. We already approved more than $5.6 million in City funding as part of the overall upgrades.
HeRO involves retrofitting ARC’s Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, enhancing its wheelchair lifts and interconnecting all mechanical systems to save energy and efficiently share thermal (or heat) energy throughout the facility.
ARC plays a vital role in the overall health and livability of our community. Thanks to HeRO, the ARC will now also be more accessible, have better air quality, reduce its annual carbon footprint by 455 tonnes and its energy consumption by about 41.37 per cent, resulting in significant energy savings.
In these ways, the HeRO project plays a large part in advancing both the City’s effort towards achieving its Official Community Plan greenhouse gas reduction targets as well as supporting equity, diversity and inclusion.
ARC will remain open to users during construction. Although there may be some limited project impacts in some areas, as well as temporary closures of portions of the facility, these will be made as minimal as possible to reduce overall impact to users. Any facility interruptions will also be well advertised in advance to users to avoid conflicts.
The project is expected to be completed in summer 2025. View the news release to learn more.
Abbotsford City Council