This summer, I had the honor and the privilege of receiving the Arts Research Internship Award to study energy efficiency initiatives and energy poverty mitigation in Quebec, under the supervision of Professor Mylène Riva in the Department of Geography.
I was able to create an extensive, but not exhaustive, inventory of residential energy efficiency initiatives in Quebec, using both online keyword searches and snowballing methods. The search was concentrated on the websites of energy providers, provincial and federal governments, provincial ministries, and state-owned companies. This allowed for the identification of the types of residential energy efficiency initiatives that exist in Quebec, which include policies, programs, and strategies. An analysis of the obtained inventory was conducted based on the energy justice framework, allowing for an evaluation of the ethical dimensions of the energy efficiency initiatives in Quebec. The distribution and recognition justice facets were focused on, allowing to assess how the initiatives are distributed among population groups and whether these initiatives accurately respond to the needs of these groups.
The results of my research prove that neither distribution nor recognition justice are met in Quebec. Homeowners and construction companies have access to a disproportionately high number of initiatives, most of which offer financial aid and thus allow for a greater range of methods for improving residential energy efficiency. However, tenants, and in particular low-income groups, do not have access to as much financial support, nor do they have access to many initiatives as a whole. The type of help available to them is superficial and, in the long term, will not allow them to improve their energy efficiency as strongly as homeowners.
Over the next year, I will continue reading the existing literature on energy poverty and will write my Honors thesis using the data I collected this summer. I hope this will allow me to formulate recommendations to policymakers, government officials and energy providers, outlining areas of focus for future initiative development.
I was interested in completing an ARIA project as I wished to discover the process of academic research, with the objectives of gaining knowledge in my field of studies and learning to manage a large-scale research project, in preparation for a potential Master’s thesis. I was able to understand the workings of a graduate program in Geography at McGill and assess whether this is something I want to pursue after I graduate.
In a way, an ARIA was like trailer for a Master’s thesis, allowing me to try out research and academia for a summer. While I worked in close collaboration with my supervisor and received help and support from the graduate students in the Health Geography lab, I also had the opportunity to work by myself, which allowed me to gain independence in scholarly work.
My ARIA experience had many highlights. By conducting research on my own, I was able to work both from the Health Geography lab in Burnside Hall and remotely. I also enjoyed working from the Geographic Information Centre with a friend and fellow ARIA recipient, where we were able to compare our timelines, share our results and discuss the challenges we encountered. Another great highlight was the sense of accomplishment I felt as I logged the final energy efficiency initiative into my Excel spreadsheet. At the beginning of my data collection, I had not expected to find more than a dozen initiatives; in the end, I had found 56. Knowing my work had produced such fruitful results was highly rewarding.
Of course, no project comes without challenges, and I often found myself overwhelmed or feeling hopeless at the magnitude of my project. Before I began my research, I was anxious at the thought of taking on such a large research project. However, by breaking it down into small parts, I managed to make the workload more manageable. This was equally a great motivator for beginning my Honors thesis, which I will complete over the following year.
I would like to thank the generous donor who allowed for the realization of my ARIA. You have given me an unforgettable opportunity, and I am grateful for it.
