Storm mitigation, including a roof rebate program, received unanimous endorsement from the city’s priorities and finance committee on Tuesday.
The meeting followed a storm on June 13, 2020, in northeast Calgary that caused at least $1.2 billion in insured damages, making it the fourth-most expensive insured natural disaster in Canadian history.
“Our front of the house was obliterated. All the windows, everything was shattered.
“All of a sudden, it was shredded,” described Saddle Ridge resident Jason Fisher.
Less than a month after the storm, Calgary city council passed a motion, from area councillor George Chahal, that aims to respond to the lessons learned from the storm.
The motion called on the city to explore what it could do to help mitigate the impact of severe weather in Calgary in the future.
“We live in hailstorm alley here in the Calgary region,” Chahal said Tuesday. “It’s important we take action to support all Calgarians and residents to be able to build back better.”
City councillors debated the recommendations from administration, which included the development of a resilient roofing rebate program.
The incentive would provide Calgarians with a $2,000 rebate for roof replacement costs when installing impact-resistant materials. For the average Calgary home, the increase in cost to replace a roof with an impact-resistant material, such as a class IV asphalt shingle over a more conventional product, is approximately $6,000 or $4 per square foot.
That kind of incentive, however, would be too late for most northeast homeowners whose roofs were high on their repair list following last June’s storm.
“A lot of folks already got their roofs done,” said Fisher, now a member of the grassroots Hailstorm Action Committee.
“There’s so many folks in our area that either upgraded with Hardie Board or got a different outer shell to their houses… I don’t think a lot of them got any benefit for doing that either, other than the fact that they’re going to be safe, they’re going to be secure.
“God forbid, if an event like this happens, the damage will be lessened to the outside of their place of residence.”
Details on how much the rebate program would cost or where the money would come from are expected sometime in April.
A committee report on the matter showed the program is expected to cover at least 50 homes in each of the city’s four quadrants.
“A $2,000 grant isn’t going to get you a new roof but it might offset the cost of building something more resilient,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi said. “It saves money for the city and the homeowner going forward, and that’s really the solid deep roots of a program like this.”
According to Allan Lambie with Epic Roofing and Exteriors, interest in impact-resistant roofing typically peaks post-storm.
He said the costs for the materials are higher but it could make a difference for the type of repairs that are needed following a large storm like the one in June 2020.
“You may get out of that storm doing minor repairs to your roof as opposed to a full roof replacement, and in a lot of cases, emergency repairs,” Lambie said.
Administration recommended identifying so-called “hail zones” in Calgary — areas more frequently hit by severe storms — and mandating impact-resistant roofing and siding materials in those areas.
The recommendations still require the final green light from council at an upcoming meeting.
If approved, Nenshi will also be asked to write a letter to the province requesting changes to building code legislation for roofing and siding materials in hail-prone areas. The mayor will also be asked to request provincial funding to help support the proposed rebate program.
“I actually think that (the provincial government) will put this in their intake process and really think about it and we’ll advocate for it hard,” Nenshi said.
“I’m not sure this is a tall order in concept. It’s just I don’t know how long it takes to cycle through new building code that becomes mandatory to builders.”
The reports also suggested exploring the installation of a hail monitoring network in Calgary with the potential to extend it into areas west of the city as a possible early warning system.
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