More and more, people living in Quebec are saving money on their energy bills and reducing pollution with energy efficiency in Canada's homes and buildings through retrofitting.
Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Member of Parliament for Laurier-Sainte-Marie, on behalf of the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, announced investments of $563,000 to the Montreal Climate Partnership and to BOMA Québec, as part of the Government of Canada's newly launched Canada Green Buildings Strategy.
At a time when Canadians are feeling the high cost of living, Canada's first-ever Green Buildings Strategy aims to help Canadians lower their energy bills. It is the Government of Canada's plan to make life cost less for Canadians, fight climate change, and support good paying jobs across the country. The Strategy aims to accelerate retrofits of existing buildings, ensure we are building energy-efficient, climate-resilient, and affordable buildings from the start, and seize the economic opportunities associated with more efficient and lower-carbon building materials and technologies. It introduces the $800 million Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program (CGHAP) to assist low- to median-income Canadians, including tenants, by providing home retrofits at no cost. It also includes a commitment to phase out oil heating in new construction in the coming years.
To drive progress on energy efficiency projects across the country, Minister Guilbeault announced:
- $200,000 to the Montreal Climate Partnership, who, with the support of the Greater Montréal Climate Fund and the City of Montréal, is developing a free, easy-to-access, and simple-to-use digital tool to help Montréalers identify the best solutions to replace fossil-fuel heating equipment. This tool is currently being developed by Dunsky Énergie + Climat, l'École de technologie supérieure, and Concordia University with the support of Hydro-Québec and Energir, under the coordination of Vivre en Ville.
- $363,000 to BOMA Québec for a pilot project to introduce commercial, institutional, and multi-residential building owners and managers to the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (ESPM) platform with a goal of tracking and reducing energy consumption in buildings across Quebec. Already, over 300 buildings in nearly 50 municipalities are participating, using ESPM to collect data. The pilot is part of BOMA's Building Energy Challenge, which, since it was launched in 2018, has contributed to a reduction of over 17 percent in energy consumption among participants, equivalent to the annual consumption of nearly 9,000 homes.
These programs build on the success to-date that the Government of Canada has experienced in transitioning more Quebec residents to cleaner, more affordable home energy systems. Already 55,140 households in Quebec have benefitted from the Canada Greener Homes Grant to install heat pumps, energy-efficient windows and doors, and insulation. Related to that, 37,260 people living in Quebec have installed heat pumps with the support of federal programs, notably the Oil to Heat Pump Affordability Program. The impact of this momentum is particularly important for households that are fully heating with oil, as they could save from $1,500 to $4,500 per year on their home energy bills by switching to a cold climate electric heat pump.
As Canada builds stronger communities with more affordable housing, the Canada Green Buildings Strategy will ensure we are doing so in a way that cuts energy bills, enhances creates good-paying jobs for Canadian communities, and makes our homes and buildings more comfortable, efficient, and resilient.
