News
Canadian Task Force for a Resilient Recovery urges building retrofits

An independent panel of experts making up the Canadian Task Force for a Resilient Recovery have released a preliminary report that includes “5 Bold Moves for a Resilient Recovery”, the first of which is a proposed $27.3B federal investment in climate-resilient and energy-efficient buildings. The building retrofit package serves as the keystone of a proposed total $49.9B clean economic recovery package.

The task force made six recommendations related to improving the efficiency of the country’s building stock:

1. Expand public-private financing facilities for building retrofits using a $13B public investment to leverage $35B in private capital through de-risking and co-investment strategies.
2. Spend $10B on expanding existing provincial and municipal building retrofit programs.
3. Invest $1.25B in workforce development for energy efficiency and climate resiliency.
4. Use $2B to select diverse large-scale demonstration projects through a competitive process, and apply innovative techniques to significantly reduce the cost, time and customer disruption of deep energy retrofits.
5. Introduce new national model building code incorporating net-zero and resiliency measures in the next year, while also providing incentives for provincial uptake; and invest $2 million to integrate a ‘ResiliGuide’ rating to measure the climate resilience of buildings.
6. Create an Indigenous Infrastructure Fund (a rotating $1B-per-year non-lapsing fund) to bolster investment in sustainable infrastructure in Indigenous communities across Canada

The other recommended “Bold Moves” include:

• Jumpstart Canada’s production and adoption of zero-emission vehicles.
• Go big on growing Canada’s clean energy sectors.
• Invest in the nature that protects and sustains us.
• Grow clean competitiveness and jobs across the Canadian economy.

This is the preliminary report from the Task Force, and a final report and supporting materials are expected to be released in September.
Task Force for a Resilient Recovery Preliminary Report