Greener homes program ‘practically inaccessible’ to northerners

A Yellowknife homeowner says a years-long wait for home energy evaluations has left a federal green funding program “practically inaccessible to northern residents.”

The man, who asked that he not be named due to his employer, said he is looking to replace an inefficient 30-year-old oil-fired furnace in his home with a boiler system.

“It’s nearing the end of its lifespan and it was my hope to replace that system with a less carbon-intensive alternative,” he said.

“Replacing the system, as I found out, is quite an expensive thing to do, especially if you’re going to go to high efficiency. It’s considerably more than it would be to just swap out my existing system.”

The man estimates a high-efficiency system is more than four times the cost of a new oil-fired furnace. He hoped to begin work this summer by accessing funding through the Canada Greener Homes Initiative, which offers grants and loans to help cover eligible home retrofits.

One of the initiative’s requirements is a pre-retrofit home energy evaluation. Without that, you can’t get the cash.

A two-year wait

In the NWT, energy efficiency not-for-profit Arctic Energy Alliance is the only organization registered with Natural Resources Canada to conduct such evaluations.

The man said he contacted the Arctic Energy Alliance in November 2023. When he followed up in July, however, he learned there is a two-year wait for home evaluations in the territory.

The man then contacted the federal program seeking an exemption to the evaluation requirement, saying he can’t wait two years to replace his failing furnace. The federal government told him that was not an option.

He said that outcome means he must decide whether to “limp along with my existing system, which is a pretty-high risk option because it’s a 30-year-old system that’s already starting to fail,” or find a lower-cost option that would mean “another 25 to 30 years of higher emissions.”

The man said he could potentially fund the boiler system on his own, but it’s a big expense and will take a long time to recover through lower insurance premiums and heating bills.

Canadian government says support available

The Greener Homes program says it does recognize northerners face “special challenges” completing retrofits, including higher costs. It offers an additional 30 percent in funding for northern and off-grid communities. People living in the North are also eligible for funding to help replace fossil fuel-burning equipment and additional insulation measures.

The Greener Homes grant program stopped accepting new applications in February 2024. The loan part of the program remains open.

Natural Resources Canada, which administers the program, told Cabin Radio 94 NWT residents are currently “making their way through” the Greener Homes grant program.

The department said it funded and organized an energy advisor to travel from the Yukon to conduct home energy evaluations in the NWT in 2022. Last year, it said there weren’t enough NWT homeowners interested in travel support.

Demand for evaluations has quadrupled

In an email to Cabin Radio, Kevin Cull, a spokesperson for Arctic Energy Alliance, confirmed that the wait time for a home energy evaluation in the NWT is currently one and a half to two years.

He said that’s due to a backlog caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which restricted evaluators’ ability to go into people’s homes, alongside increased demand following the launch of the Greener Homes program. He said applications have quadrupled compared to a normal year.

“We’re a non-profit organization with a set amount of funding each year, and both our funding and available staff time didn’t allow us to keep up with the demand,” Cull wrote, adding contractors from outside the NWT have been brought in to help.

“The biggest impact we’ve seen is that people have had to wait much longer than they would have liked to be able to start their retrofit projects and receive a grant or loan,” Cull wrote.

“We know that’s frustrating, and we’ve seen some people choose to go ahead with their projects anyway and forgo the grant or loan, or even abandon their projects altogether.”

The man looking to replace his furnace said he doesn’t blame the Arctic Energy Alliance for the long wait time for an energy evaluation, but questions why they are a requirement to access federal funding. He said providing documentation on replacing a carbon-intensive system with a high-efficiency one should be adequate.

“Considering all the barriers that NWT residents seem to have with the wait time – which, in my view, is effectively locking NWT residents out of this program – it seems like we should have flexibility within the program,” he said.

“It just seems like I’m being literally financially disincentivized from choosing a greener system.”