$400 Million in ecoENERGY Grants

May 06, 2014

The Government of Canada has renewed the popular ecoENERGY Retrofit-Homes program. From June 6, 2011, until March 31, 2012, homeowners are eligible to receive grants of up to $5,000 to make their homes more energy-efficient. Homeowners who participated in the program to date have saved 20 percent on their energy bills.

The Federal Government has decided to reinstate the ecoENERGY initiative with a $400 million grant. This is great news for anyone looking to perform energy upgrades on their home!

If the official budget is passed and implemented in the month of July, that will allow homeowners nine months to complete the initial energy audit of their home, renovate and get a second, follow up energy audit. Under the old program, which lasted 18 months, energy companies say that people were scrambling to get everything completed in that time frame, and some even needed extensions.

"At the very least, what we would want to see happen is that we have two fiscal years to spend that $400 million, not one year. In other words, operate the program till the money runs out if you're serious about putting that amount of money in it," said Clifford Maynes, executive director of Green Communities Canada.

Another contributing factor is the availability of energy industry advisors. According to Maynes, since the old program expired, many companies were forced to shut down or severely scale back operations in the absence of grants. These companies will now need time to rebuild their operations to their previous capacity. Convincing trained energy advisers to return to their jobs when the federal program gets implemented is a challenge, not just because of the instability, but because some have already gone on to other sources of income.

The Save ecoEnergy Coalition is lobbying the government to commit to a four-year renewal of the program, so the home-energy industry will have time to become more sustainable. Lengthening the initiative would benefit homeowners as well providing them with a far more reasonable time frame to organize and implement retrofits.

If you are interested in upgrading your home's insulation and want to take advantage of the ecoENERGY Retro Homeowner Grant Program, contact us today (800.265.1914) to ensure prompt service.

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