The federal government is bringing back a rebate for green retrofits for some low-income homeowners and renters in four provinces, nearly two years after the program lapsed and ran out of cash.
The Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program was expanded on Monday owing to “global uncertainty, volatile energy costs and growing demand for electricity,” a government news release said.
The program, earlier called the Canada Greener Homes Grant program, was first launched by the federal government in 2021, but it lapsed in 2024.
The plan outlined on Monday “provides no-cost home energy retrofits — including upgrades such as heat pumps, insulation and air sealing — to low- and median-income homeowners and tenants to help households save energy and reduce monthly utility costs.”
Previously, it was only available for homeowners, however, the newly rebranded Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program is available for both homeowners and renters who meet the program’s income requirements.
The rebate has been revived for residents of Quebec, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
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The program includes spending more than $500 million in funding, $300 million of which is federal, on 35,000 low- and median-income households to install heat pumps, better insulation, improved air sealing and other upgrades.
Those who retrofit their homes to receive the rebate will be able to save between $300 and $1,700 in annual energy costs and reduce their household’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by about 1.5 tonnes, Natural Resources Canada said.
The largest share of the pie went to Quebec, where the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change received $243.5 million in total funding (federal and provincial) for 25,000 households.
In British Columbia, the federal and provincial governments will spend $177.3 million to expand HydroBC’s existing program for 6,000 households and $45.2 million on FortisBC for 1,000 households.
The Nova Scotia Department of Energy is set to receive $26 million from the federal and provincial governments to expand the HomeWarming and African Nova Scotian Communities Retrofit programs for 1,600 households.
The federal government will transfer $11.5 million to the province of Prince Edward, which will add $3.5 million of its own to expand the program to expand its existing Free Insulation Program for income-qualified households.
An excellent idea. The most deserving in Canadian society will receive help. Good move by the Carney government! I’m sure the conservatives will complain they don’t appear to like it when the poor get assistance.
Not only is this incredibly misleading in that renters will have no right to make any decision in these regards, but that the initial program excluded landlords because the government didnt even consider renters the first time around.
Oh, and I doubt it will qualify unless you are replacing an A/C unit, leaving most low income renters without the upgrade.
I used the Greener Homes loan before it ended in 2024 to get a heat pump and replace all the windows and doors in my house. It was absolutely worth it for the windows and doors but the heat pump is not good. It is basically useless below -3 and we need to revert to propane heating. The loan did save us thousands on interest payments though and fast tracked a project that would have taken us 2-3 years to save for.
Low income Canadians typically don’t own homes. If it a retired Senior on a fixed income they probably won’t spend the money. Total nothing burger again by Carney
So, the government is saying renters will be participate but thats obviously a complete lie and the program has merely been extended to landlords.
The lions share will go to Quebec, as if they don’t get enough free Equalization Payments money. More blatant LPC vote buying at the expense of Canadian Taxpayers.
Why would a renter upgrade the heating system in a home they don’t own? Lol
But seriously who will this program benifit ? New Immigrants and welfare recipients their the only people with incomes low enough to be eligible.
Another Carney failure.
More waste of my tax dollars. The libs are idiots.
So PM’s majority are gouging landlords thanks to mass unskilled immigration to lower wages and raises cost of everything else, along with green grift carbon do nothing for climate tax. Voted so they can money launder more taxpayers money. Law enforcement is corrupt as the government and do nothing but protect their gang members.
Welcome to dictatorship and communist rule. Close the government if they dont like the polling numbers.