Regina city council approved its Energy and Sustainability Framework — a strategy to support the city in reaching its goal of becoming fully renewable by 2050 — two months ago.
Within the plan are the ‘Seven Big Moves’, which are actions to help transition the city to its renewable end goal.
As part of those Big Moves, the city administration is recommending council launch a residential retrofit rebate program to encourage homeowners to install energy and emission reducing upgrades in their homes.
“This is a very reasonable pilot project to kick off, and again, we’re hoping the data and feedback we get will help us determine for the next budget cycle, what’s possible,” said Regina Mayor Sandra Masters on Wednesday.
The discussion came up during Wednesday morning’s executive committee meeting at city hall where councillors voted unanimously in favour of the motion.
The city’s proposed rebate program would piggyback on the Canadian government’s Greener Homes Grant by matching the funding for work covered and rebated by the federal program.
“Any time we go to create something in-house, it just takes that much longer. A pilot project coming forward by matching the grant from the federal government creates more affordability, frankly,” noted Masters.
“We need the houses retrofitted, so we will collect the data in terms of how many people applied, what kind of work they were doing and what kind of demand is present in this city will help inform of us of future program development.”
The maximum grant any recipient of the city’s proposed program a person will receive is $5000, according to city administration.
As part of the 2022 budget, approximately $6 million is being put towards the Seven Big Moves and $200,000 of that funding is to create a city retrofit rebate program.
It’s estimated that the initial investment will provide between 40 to 80 rebates for interested residents.
According to a city report, there are about 61,000 residential homes that require retrofits to meet the city’s 2050 goal.
City council will debate the item when it’s brought up at their next meeting on June 1.
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