MONTRÉAL, July 17,
2024 /CNW/ - 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.
Quotes
"Energy efficiency means cost savings for Canadians. At a time
when we are facing challenges with affordability and climate
change, this plan meets Canadians where they are at and delivers
the action they need, at the pace and scale they are demanding.
Canada's first-ever Canada Green
Buildings Strategy is a plan to save Canadians money, create jobs,
and seize the economic opportunities that a clean and sustainable
economy presents."
– The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural
Resources
"As we work towards ending Canada's housing crisis, we need to ensure the
longevity of new and existing buildings by making them more energy
efficient and resilient to the impacts of climate change. We are
proud to announce these investments today that will go a long way
in doing just that across the country."
– The Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing, Infrastructure
and Communities
"The Canada Green Buildings Strategy is all about building more
energy-efficient and affordable homes and buildings. Cutting the
wasted energy from the heating and cooling of our buildings is a
win-win, both for lower energy bills and less harmful pollution
going into our atmosphere. Already in Quebec and across Canada, we have seen a tidal shift in the
adoption of heat pumps at a household level, as well as clean
energy solutions for large commercial buildings and industry. It is
through close collaboration of provinces and territories,
municipalities, Indigenous peoples, businesses, and individuals
over the coming years that we can keep this progress going and make
a big dent in the emissions coming from our buildings sector."
– The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and
Climate Change
"Our government is taking ambitious steps to achieve net zero by
2050 through our Greening Government Strategy. By implementing a
Buy Clean approach to a real property portfolio of over 34,000
buildings nationwide, we are maximizing energy efficiency while
minimizing the environmental impact of construction materials and
design. Through these efforts, we are leading the fight against
climate change."– The Honourable Anita Anand, President of the
Treasury Board and Minister responsible for the Centre for Greening
Government
"Canada Green Buildings Strategy is a highly commendable
initiative, addressing both the climate crisis and the housing
crisis simultaneously. At Vivre en Ville, we have long championed
this dual approach, and our commitment continues through our
involvement in the Housing and Climate Working Group. Today's
announced project, coordinated by Vivre en Ville for the Montréal
Climate Partnership, exemplifies our ongoing dedication to being
part of the solution. This initiative aims to empower owners of
small residential and commercial buildings, who are often not
subject to regulations and have limited resources, by providing
them with the tools and knowledge to effectively decarbonize their
heating systems."
– Christian Savard, Executive
Director of Vivre en Ville
"The decarbonization support tool for small building owners is
the culmination of several months of intensive collaboration by the
Montréal Climate Partnership's building working group. Together,
they have developed a collective and concrete solution to
accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from Montréal
buildings. This tool empowers Montréalers to make informed
decisions about replacing their heating systems, enabling them not
only to decarbonize their buildings but also to achieve significant
cost savings. The federal government's support for this project is
particularly meaningful, as it reinforces the expertise of field
actors who work tirelessly to drive the socio-ecological
transition, making it accessible and beneficial for everyone."
– Allison Reynaud,
Co-Director, Partnerships and Development, Montreal Climate
Partnership
"The funding enabled BOMA Québec to introduce commercial,
institutional and multi-residential building owners and managers to
the ESPM platform. It has also played a significant role in
compiling the results of the Building Energy Challenge, with over
300 buildings in Quebec taking
part each year."
– Antoine Gérin-Roze, Program Director at BOMA Québec and
head of the Building Energy Challenge
Quick facts
- Totalling $903.5 million, the
Canada Green Buildings Strategy is funded as a part of Budget 2024
and is mentioned in Solving the Housing Crisis – Canada's Housing Plan. It complements
Canada's National Adaptation
Strategy, which lays out a framework to reduce the risk of
climate-related disasters, improve health outcomes, protect nature
and biodiversity, build and maintain climate resilient
infrastructure, and support a strong economy and workers. New and
ongoing federal initiatives are already starting to put the
Strategy's vision in practice.
- Buildings are Canada's
third-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions. Nearly all
building emissions—over 96 percent—come from space and water
heating. To tackle this, major changes in the building sector are
underway, with the potential to create hundreds of thousands of
jobs and help Canadians save money on their energy bills.
- Retrofitting existing buildings, building green from the start,
and choosing alternatives to fossil fuel heating equipment, such as
electric heat pumps, will help Canada achieve its net-zero commitments by
2050. There is also a need to build stronger to better equip
communities to withstand the effects of climate change.
- To reach Canada's climate
goals, reduce energy bills, and build up Canada's supply of energy-efficient and
resilient building stock, there is a need to accelerate the
retrofit of approximately 10 million buildings and construct
millions of new net-zero buildings in the coming decades.
- The Canada Green Buildings Council estimates that ambitious
action on buildings could create up to 1.5 million jobs and inject
$150 billion into Canada's economy by 2030.
- Canadian households spend an average of $2,200 a year on home energy costs and these
costs are significantly higher in homes that heat with oil and in
older homes with poor insulation, ventilation, and heating/cooling
systems.
- The Government of Canada has
also committed to actions to phase out the installation of
expensive and polluting oil heating systems in new construction, as
early as 2028. In Quebec, there
are roughly 465,200 homes that use heating oil, sometimes in
combination with electric heating systems or other forms of home
heating.
- The Canada Green Buildings Strategy is a commitment in the 2030
Emissions Reduction Plan: a sector-by-sector approach to reach
Canada's climate target of cutting
emissions by at least 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, laying
the foundation to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
- As of June 8, 2024, retrofits
from the Canada Greener Homes Grant alone are removing over 306,540
metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to taking
nearly 94,000 fossil fuel powered vehicles off the road.
Associated links
- Canada Green Buildings Strategy
- Backgrounder with additional details on investments
- Codes Accelerator Fund (CAF)
- Deep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative (DRAI)
- Toward Net-Zero (TNZ) Homes and Communities
- Greener Neighbourhoods Pilot Program (GNPP)
- ENERGY STAR Canada
- Oil to Heat Pump Affordability Program (OHPA)
- Canada Greener Homes Initiative
Environment and Climate Change Canada's X (Twitter) page
Environment and Climate Change Canada's Facebook page
SOURCE Environment and Climate Change Canada