THUNDER
BAY, ON, July 17, 2024 /CNW/ - The Canada Green
Buildings Strategy (CGBS) introduces the Government of Canada's vision and next steps to improving
energy efficiency in Canada's
homes and buildings, which will in turn cut energy bills for
Canadians and support good jobs from coast to coast to
coast.
Today, The Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous
Services and Minister responsible for FedNor, on behalf of the
Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada's Minister of Energy and Natural
Resources, announced the First Green Building Strategy.
As part of the CGBS, the Government of Canada introduced the $800-million Canada Greener Homes Affordability
Program (CGHAP) to help low-to-median-income Canadians, including
tenants, upgrade their homes to save money on their energy bills
and cut pollution. This new program will replace the Canada Greener
Homes Grant (CGHG) with more comprehensive support for the
installation of retrofits, at no charge to participating
households. Using a 'direct install' model, where the retrofits are
managed and delivered by third parties, this program could provide
participating households with support up to four times more
valuable than the former grant program. Recommended retrofits will
be determined by experienced energy efficiency professionals,
enabling each participant to receive what their home needs and
making their homes more affordable and comfortable.
The CGHAP builds on the progress made to date through the CGHG,
which has already helped 240,000 homeowners install heat pumps,
windows and doors, and insulation through an average grant of
$4,400 per household. Each year a
CGHG household will save an average of nearly $400 on their energy bills and reduce their
emissions by 1.18 tonnes of CO2. Over the next couple of years, the
CGHG will continue to help hundreds of thousands more program
participants complete retrofit projects that will further reduce
emissions and energy consumption.
In addition to CGHAP, the Oil to Heat Pump Affordability Program
and the Canada Greener Homes Loan will continue to help Canadians
reduce their home energy costs and make the switch to electric heat
pumps. To date, nearly 160,000 heat pumps installations have been
supported by federal funding. 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.
The Government of Canada has
also committed to introducing a regulatory framework to phase out
the installation of expensive and polluting oil heating systems in
new construction, as early as 2028. This phase-out would include
necessary exclusions for regions with insufficient access to the
electricity grid and where standby back-up heating fuel is
required.
The Government of Canada is
also greening its own infrastructure, with the goal of fully
meeting the energy needs of federal buildings with clean energy
sources, by eliminating the use of fossil fuels for space and water
heating where possible and building net-zero from the start.
To help develop a sustainable foundation for years to come, the
Government of Canada's new Buy
Clean approach will build on Canada's clean manufacturing advantage. The
approach supports a shift to low-carbon materials and design
through federal construction procurements and public infrastructure
asset investments, which reduces the full life cycle of emissions
from building materials and projects and fosters manufacturing
competitiveness and jobs.
Canadians want to live in sustainable communities: places with
clean air, affordable homes and good jobs. The Government of
Canada's investments in greening
buildings and switching from fossil fuels to clean electricity are
key to lowering GHG emissions while supporting a strong and
affordable economy.
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, Government of Canada
"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 Canada
"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 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 out buildings sector."
The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and
Climate Change
"This new strategy will help people in Thunder Bay save on their heating bills. It's
a more flexible solution that will better protect the environment
and create sustainable good-paying jobs for families right here in
our region."
The Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services
and Minister responsible for FedNor
"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
of Canada and Minister responsible
for the Centre for Greening Government
Quick Facts
- Buildings are Canada's
third-largest emitter of GHG 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.
- 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 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.
- Retrofits under the Canada Greener Homes Grants have been
issued to 240,000 Canadian households, with an average grant of
$4,400 per household. These retrofits
are removing over 306,540 metric tonnes of GHG emissions,
equivalent to taking nearly 94,000 fossil fueled powered vehicles
off the road.
- 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.
Related Information
- The Canada Green Buildings Strategy: Transforming Canada's
buildings sector for a net-zero and resilient future
- Codes Acceleration Fund
- Deep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative
- Retrofit Hub (canada.ca)
- Toward net-zero homes and communities
- Greener Neighbourhoods Pilot Program
- ENERGY STAR Canada
- Oil to Heat Pump Affordability Program (OHPA)
- Oil to Heat Pump Affordability program at a glance -
June 2024
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SOURCE Indigenous Services Canada