Home retrofits are a critical piece of Canada’s ambitious climate plans, and one of the major contributors to this effort is the City of Toronto’s Home Energy Loan Program (HELP), which has completed 245 retrofit projects with 18 more currently underway.
Toronto-Danforth MP Julie Dabrusin, who is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change announced a $14,568,000 investment through the Community Efficiency Financing initiative to help recapitalize a home energy retrofit financing program in the City of Toronto, on behalf of Wilkinson – alongside Taneen Rudyk, President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).
“Today’s $14.5 million investment will enable the City of Toronto to build on the Home Energy Loan Program’s (HELP) legacy of retrofitting hundreds of homes, in line with Toronto and Canada’s ambitious climate targets. This is a tangible step towards bringing energy efficiency, job creation, and affordability to communities across Ontario and Canada,” said Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources.
HELP was launched in 2014 as the first Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program in Ontario.
This funding will support enhancements to HELP so the program will better support energy efficiency and decarbonization of houses in Toronto, while growing the model nationally. HELP uses a local improvement charge (LIC) financing model and is administered by City staff. The program is open to detached, semi-detached and row houses of any age. The program currently supports energy-efficiency, renewable-energy, energy-storage and water-conservation measures.
The City aims to widen market awareness through planned outreach and provide more support to homeowners, contractors, industry associations and realtors to plan and undertake retrofits. HELP will also continue to increase capacity-building and knowledge-sharing among internal and external stakeholders to grow the model in other communities across Ontario and Canada. HELP is aligned with and supports the City’s accelerated TransformTO Net Zero climate action strategy and target to reduce city-wide greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors to net zero by 2040, including all homes and buildings.
“It’s critically important to have everyone in the climate fight. Municipalities across Canada are doing their part with innovative solutions that create jobs and climate resilience. Green infrastructure investments in Canadian communities will make our air cleaner, our economy stronger, and set us on the path to a net-zero future,” said Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
The Community Efficiency Financing (CEF) initiative is offered through the Green Municipal Fund (GMF) delivered by FCM and funded by the Government of Canada. The CEF helps communities of all sizes implement innovative local financing programs that directly help homeowners cut their greenhouse gas emissions, make their homes more energy-efficient, comfortable and affordable, while creating local jobs and building the capacity for a thriving retrofit market in Canada’s cities.
This initiative is one of the ways the GMF continues to build on its 20-year record of supporting transformative environmental initiatives at the community level. The Government of Canada has invested $1.65 billion in the GMF since its inception, empowering municipalities to support projects that leverage local resources to drive innovative solutions.
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