Cool down the energy bills

Photo: Contributed

Richard Cannings has tabled a motion in Parliament to bring back a program that would help Canadians retrofit their homes to be more energy efficient.

The EcoENERGY Home Retrofit program from the federal government ran between 2011 and 2012 and from 2007 to 2010, and offered $1 in federal funding for every $4 the homeowner spent on renovating their house for efficiency.

According to Cannings, between its two runs, the program took on a total of 890,000 applicants, injecting over $1 billion into the construction industry from the federal government alone.

"But the actual homeowners paid in $4 billion,... so it's a huge amount of impact for a relatively small amount of money put in by the government," Cannings said. "It really gets people involved in doing the right thing and gets the economy going in every community so it's kind of a win-win-win."

Now, Cannings, MP for South Okanagan – West Kootenay and the federal NDP's natural resources critic, has introduced a motion M-119 calling on the federal government to bring the program back.

Currently, Cannings says there is no federal plan in place to retrofit homes for energy efficiency in order to meet Canada's climate goals.

"The government is just saying, 'We're going to let the provinces deal with that,'" he said. "Here's a good federal program that they can show some leadership on."

Across B.C., an abnormally cold January sent electricity and heating bills far higher than usual for the average homeowner or renter, causing a furor in numerous communities, including Penticton.

"That's certainly a part of it," Cannings said. "They're getting dinged, especially people who have the unfortunate just randomness to be heating their home with electricity."

Cannings says the motion was more intended for an environmental case, but adds that by subsidizing better insulation or window sealing, winter energy bills could be cooled down.