Federal government invests in deep energy retrofits

Clean air, middle-class jobs and more money in Canadians’ pockets: helping people upgrade their homes to be more energy-efficient fights climate change and creates good jobs, all while making sure homeowners save on their monthly bills.

Today, Julie Dabrusin, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Natural Resources and to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, on behalf of the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources, announced an investment of more than $4.4 million to the Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) to enable energy efficiency in the residential sector in municipalities across Canada.

The project will fund deep energy retrofits in houses and low-rise multi-unit residential buildings to demonstrate the various approaches that can be used to achieve net-zero-energy–ready performance in residential units. Net-zero-energy–ready buildings are designed and constructed to high performance levels that could produce at least as much energy as they consume on an annual basis, with the addition of renewable power generation.

CHBA will focus on finding the most cost–effective solutions for up to 150 residential units to help find optimum approaches to net-zero home retrofits and inform the development of energy codes for existing homes, targeting multiple building archetypes in various climate zones and varying business models.

Federal funding is provided through Natural Resources Canada’s Green Infrastructure – Energy Efficient Buildings Program. This program supports the development and implementation of building codes for existing buildings and new net-zero-energy–ready buildings through research, development and demonstration projects.

Through programs such as this, the federal government is creating sustainable jobs, building a clean energy future and charting a path toward net-zero emissions by 2050.