Relief for homeowners who joined federal program to encourage green renovations
This article was written by Marco Chown Oved and was published in the Toronto Star on March 29, 2024.
Everyone who was accepted into a federal program meant to encourage green home renovations will be able to receive their full $10,000 rebate, Enbridge has confirmed.
The Greener Homes Program was abruptly shut down last month by the federal government.
In the wake of that decision, there have been concerns that thousands of Ontarians might be left on the hook for money they had spent on new windows, insulation and heat pumps.
Of particular concern were as many as 16,000 Ontarians who had applied to the federal government program before its administration was transferred to Enbridge last year.
After the Star published a story highlighting how some homeowners had been told by their energy auditors they would only get $5,000 from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and not the additional $5,000 topup from Enbridge, the natural gas distributor told the Star on Wednesday they would all be accepted to the rebate program.
“Enbridge Gas accepts all applications with a pre-retrofit energy assessment before Feb. 5, 2024,” wrote Enbridge spokesperson Leanne McNaughton in an email.
The rebate program required homeowners to have an energy audit conducted before and after their renovation work.
The Star spoke with four homeowners who said they had submitted their pre-audits and were accepted by the federal government, but when the program was transferred to Enbridge, their files were not.
Two energy advisers with clients in this situation said they tried to transfer the files to Enbridge after the program was halted in February but were told by Enbridge that it would not accept any new files, even those that had already been accepted by NRCan.
Those homeowners can now breathe a sigh of relief.
“I’m relieved to hear that Enbridge has reversed their position and will now honour the rebates for families like ours,” said Toronto homeowner Nicole Roberto. “I hope their decision makers understand that they’ve caused a lot of unnecessary stress for folks, and that they take immediate steps to clearly communicate this change to everyone who is eligible.”
Registered energy adviser Sarah Grant says she has hundreds of clients who will be relieved Enbridge has publicly committed to giving them their rebates.
“This is huge for people who have done the work to get off gas and accomplish big things with their homes,” said Grant.
“For programs like this to work, there needs to be consistency and homeowners need to know what the rules are so they can plan accordingly. Sticking to the original plan is such a relief.”
McNaughton told the Star that Enbridge never cut these people off and had only paused their applications.
“Those applications with a pre-retrofit energy assessment before the (Enbridge) program started (Jan. 1, 2023) were on hold for a short period as we reviewed and reconciled the total number of applications in our system,” she said.
The federal government’s Greener Homes Program provided as much as $5,000 in grants and continues to provide as much as $40,000 in interest-free loans to help homeowners pay for new windows, doors and heat pumps.
These emissions reductions measures also save homeowners money, which is why the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) has been mandating that they be subsidized for years.
When the federal government transferred the Greener Homes Program in Ontario to Enbridge, the OEB ordered the natural gas company to stack its customer-funded rebates on top, for a total of $10,000 available for green retrofits.
The program proved so popular that the federal government cut off new applications last month, with Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson saying it had burned through $2.6 billion in funding three years ahead of schedule.
In an interview with the Star, he committed to providing rebates to all those who had been accepted into the program, even if their renovations were not yet complete.
Energy advisers found, however, that they could not transfer the files of clients who had signed up with NRCan before the program was switched over to Enbridge, effectively cutting them off from half of the potential rebates.
Grant said Enbridge had told energy advisers not to transfer these files until clients had completed their renovations.
But when the program stopped accepting applications, advisers only had a few hours to try to transfer hundreds of files before the deadline.
Residential heating is responsible for six per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions and bringing that down is going to be difficult.
While plugging drafts and insulating old homes can reduce how much natural gas needs to be burned, only switching to an electric heat pump can significantly reduce emissions — right to zero once natural gas is eliminated from the electricity grid.
But with more than 16 million homes in Canada, retrofitting them all will be a colossal challenge, requiring — according to one estimate — one home to be taken off fossil fuels and converted to electricity every minute until 2050.
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