The City of Peterborough is receiving $8.6 million from the federal government and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for the city’s new $11.9-million Home Energy Efficiency Program, which provides financing for homeowners to complete home energy efficiency retrofits.
Consisting of a $5.75 million loan and a $2.87 million grant, the funding comes from the Green Municipal Fund’s Community Efficiency Financing program.
The $8.6-million investment was announced in front of a residential home in Peterborough’s East City on Thursday (February 22) by federal environment and climate change minister Steven Guilbeault on behalf of energy and natural resources minister Jonathan Wilkinson and by Federation of Canadian Municipalities president Scott Pearce, with Peterborough mayor Jeff Leal also attending.
“The new Home Energy Efficiency Program is great news for the people of Peterborough,” Guilbeault said in a media release. “It helps them cut their monthly energy bills while contributing to the fight against climate change.”
The Green Municipal Fund, which is administered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities with funding from the Government of Canada, helps municipal governments switch to sustainable practices faster and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by providing grants, loans, funding, resources, and training. In January, the City of Peterborough received $9.3 million in loans and grants from the fund for the city’s new $10-million net zero carbon fire station.
The city’s new Home Energy Efficiency Program, which has been under development for the past two years, is a response to the city’s declaration of a climate emergency in 2019 and the city’s subsequent goals of achieving a 45 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
According to the city, 23 per cent of these emissions come from Peterborough’s 34,660 residential dwellings.
“Peterborough is helping homeowners take climate action by making it easier to finance retrofits that will greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other low carbon measure improvements,” said Peterborough mayor Jeff Leal.
The Home Energy Efficiency Program will provide two options for homeowners to secure financing for energy efficiency renovations.
Homeowners can access loans from $15,000 to $125,000 that would be tied to the property, secured by a local improvement charge, and repaid through the homeowner’s property tax bill (if the property is sold, the loan would either remain tied to the property or repaid at the time of sale). Homeowners can also access loans starting at $1,000, tied to the homeowner, which would be repaid directly to a partner financial institution.
Last March, the city submitted an application for capitalization funding to the Green Municipal Fund’s Community Efficiency Financing program, which was approved last August.
At its general committee meeting on Tuesday (February 20), city council endorsed a city staff report recommending the Home Energy Efficiency Program be established and that by-laws be passed to execute the agreement with the the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and secure debenture financing to support the financing stream through the local improvement charge.
According to the city, with the exception of $260,000 coming from the city’s Climate Change Action Plan Capital Project, the full cost of the $11.9-million program will be funded either through grants or flow-through funding to be recovered through repayment of the homeowner loans.
