The Federal Government’s Canada Greener Homes Grants program was barely announced when its popularity was evident. The “applications page” was down because it was overwhelmed with such a high demand.
The grants — up to $5,000 — are to help home owners retrofit their primary residence to make it more efficient. The first step in the application process is to have an energy evaluation, and there’s up to $600 available to help pay for that. The adviser visits a home and “advises” which energy-saving measures would qualify for the program.
In the steps that follow, home owners:
• enlist the services of a licensed contractor
• pay the bill
• arrange for an inspection of the completed work
• receive a cheque
The most attractive retrofit is likely to be solar panels on the roofs of homes and buildings across the country. Only 40,000 Canadian rooftops have solar panels and before anybody says there’s not enough sunshine in Canada, it’s worth noting that the UK and Germany both receive less sunshine (on average) than Canada and have 20 times the number of solar rooftops. And, the Canadian Renewable Energy Association hastens to point out, Vietnam installed three times more solar rooftops in 2020 than Canada in the last decade. Vietnam’s installations increased by 2,435 per cent during the pandemic year.
The home retrofit program will cost the government $2.6 billion over seven years, and one of the benefits to home owners is the increased market value of their homes.