Conservatives cap energy retrofit program, let Canadians down once again
UPDATE: What does $91 million get you? The EcoEnergy program has to date saved Canadians more that 3 terawatt-hours (3 billion kilowatt-hours) of energy, according to the Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance. That works out to $339 million in electricity costs every years. To now cut this program is mindboggling, and idiotic.
It continues to amaze me how hostile Canada’s current federal government is to programs aimed at reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Word tonight is that the Harper government is winding down its EcoEnergy home retrofit program. But, as is often the case, it didn’t give homeowners advance warning. The program technically runs until March 31, 2011, but if you haven’t already done or booked a pre-retrofit energy audit you’re out of luck — only those who have already booked this first audit can continue to benefit from the federal program, which pays out up to $5,000 in incentives for people who do home energy retrofits (matching incentives from the provinces may still be in effect).
This means if you’re considering solar thermal, ground-source heat pumps, a new high-efficiency furnace, a high-efficiency air conditioner, or measures to make your home more air-tight, you’ve pretty much missed the boat. It would have been nice to see some numbers from the government to justify this move. We know that 85,000 people have already had audits that eventually led to $91 million in incentives being paid out. How much energy savings resulted? How much of a reduction in greenhouse gases did we see? How many jobs did it create? I would love to see these numbers, given that most energy experts will tell you that incentives for home energy retrofits represent one of the lowest-cost ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If the Harper government is discontinuing a climate program considered cheap compared to other alternatives, then it’s crystal clear that this government couldn’t care less about meeting its international obligations or even meeting its own greenhouse-gas reduction targets.
Let’s keep in mind it has also killed future funding for its EcoEnergy for Renewables program, taking away federal incentives for developers of wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable projects. It has also failed to promote, let alone acknowledge the potential of geothermal power projects in Canada. It helped undermine climate talks in Copenhagen. It cut funding for climate research. It is one of the only major developed countries to refuse membership in the newly created International Agency for Renewable Energy. You can see where this list is going…
Tags: EcoEnergy retrofit
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
April 1st, 2010 at 11:16 am
It seems this sort of nonsense will continue for as long as Canadians remain easy to fool. So far, people have been willing to accept 2020 and 2050 targets with no serious plans for meeting them. The government will only get more rigorous in its approach if people demand it.
Of course, media efforts to reveal the disjoint between plans and promises could play an important role in bringing that about.
April 1st, 2010 at 9:13 pm
STDC next.
April 1st, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Sorry I meant SDTC
April 1st, 2010 at 9:17 pm
Also likely the clean energy fund that was announced last year minus the few large CCS projects where they subsidize oil and gas companies…
April 2nd, 2010 at 1:18 am
Just another reason to vote the Conservatives out in the next election. For any governing party of a developed country to cancel such a worthwhile program pretty much cancels out their right to rule. Canada is an embarrassment on a world class scale and if something isn’t done soon politically we will remain that way. Harper has to go, and soon.
April 6th, 2010 at 5:15 am
While SolarUK has seen increased interest in it solar thermal systems since the UK Government announced its Renewable Heat Incentive, some in the industry are concerned that as it doesn’t come into effect till April 2011 – and the existing grant scheme has ended – their will be a sluggish period as people delay having new systems installed. In a similar vein, there are concerns that the new Feed-in Tariff for Solar PV puts existing microgenerators at a disadvantage, as they do not qualify for the new rates enjoyed by homeowners who have taken advantage of this otherwise positive development, which started on 1st April.
April 6th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
that’s one way to loose an election.
In any case, EcoEnergy rewarded a 46% efficiency for solar thermal systems while the whole craziness around PV in Ontario (naming GEA – FIT) rewards 16% efficiency (at the best – for moncrystalline). Looks like important political decisions are made without a basic consultation of the technical corps. Or the the technical corps at hand is composed of incompetents.