As winter approaches, our government is helping make life more affordable for Canadians.
Heating is one of the biggest expenses for Canadians during the winter months, and too often that money goes to the most expensive and least efficient ways to heat a home. Over seven million households in Canada still heat their homes with oil, propane, diesel, electric baseboards, or outdated furnaces. Our government is laser-focused on giving Canadians options to lower their energy costs. That's why, as part of our National Electricity Strategy, we committed to help one million Canadian households make retrofits.
Today, Wade Grant, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment, Climate Change and Nature and Bruce Fanjoy, Member of Parliament for Carleton, echoed a landmark $2 billion investment over eight years to help Canadians reduce energy costs, improve home energy efficiency, and strengthen Canada's economic competitiveness. The initiative will support up to one million home retrofits across the country, making homes and buildings more comfortable, affordable, and sustainable.
As part of this investment, the Government of Canada will introduce a new National Heat Pump Rebate to help up to 820,000 households switch to more efficient electric heat pumps.
The Government is also working with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Canada Infrastructure Bank to help apartment building owners retrofit 280,000 units over the next eight years through three complementary measures:
- Providing affordable financing for retrofits: Through its Multi-Unit Mortgage Loan Insurance Select program, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation will help retrofit up to 250,000 additional units.
- Unlocking investment in apartment buildings: Through its Building Retrofits Initiative, the Canada Infrastructure Bank will support apartment and multi-unit residential building retrofits covering at least 30,000 units.
- Supporting building owners throughout the retrofit process: The Government is renewing the Deep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative, which provides support to building owners at every stage of the retrofit journey.
Combined, these measures will support one million home retrofits and reduce Canada's emissions by over 25 megatonnes-the equivalent of taking nearly eight and a half million cars off Canadian roads for one year.
