A plan to help homeowners cut their energy bills with a city-run program is being pushed by ward three councillor Matthew Green along with climate campaigners at Environment Hamilton. Under the Home Energy Retrofit Opportunity (HERO) initiative the city would provide low-interest loans to help residents make their homes more energy efficient.
Similar programs are being tried in other municipalities and results show that the savings exceed the loan repayments even at current energy prices which are expected to continue rising as fuel prices increase and measures are taken to minimize climate change.
“We’re hearing from neighbours about the hike in hydro prices, and also the need for stronger measures to tackle climate change,” says Green in a media release. “This program couldn’t come at a better time.”
The loans would be attached to the building rather than the owner and repayments would be through the home’s property tax bill. Consequently, if the owner sells the property, the remaining balance on the loan is automatically transferred to the new owner, and if any defaults occur the city can seize the property for unpaid taxes.
Similar “local improvement charges” are already utilized by the city for other services such as helping residents pay for replacement of lead water pipes, and covering the installation of sidewalks and sanitary sewer connections. The provincial government changed its legislation in 2012 “to allow local improvement charges to be used for voluntary energy efficient upgrades on private property” as well.
The initiative passes on the city’s ability to obtain lower interest rates, and advances its objective of helping to reduce the community’s greenhouse gas emissions. And the program should mean increased local jobs in retrofitting and installation work.
Environment Hamilton has been advocating for the program for several months and gave it the HERO tag and its own short video. Green acknowledged the role of the community environmental group when he filed a notice of motion at the last council meeting that asks staff to investigate similar initiatives in Toronto, Guelph and Halifax in coming up with a specific plan for Hamilton.
His motion points to recent federal and provincial promises to support green infrastructure projects to reduce energy demand and cut the emissions responsible for climate change. They include an extra $125 million from Ottawa for Innovative Green Municipal Projects, and a Green Bank proposal from Queen’s Park tasked with “assisting homeowners in navigating municipal, federal, and provincial grants and programs dedicated to energy efficiency, with a specific focus on assistance for low income households.”
He also notes the early results from a similar program in Halifax that has provided participants with average net savings of $434 per year. He cites Environment Hamilton research that the Halifax Solar City program “reduced the city’s carbon footprint by 16.1 million kilograms of CO2, implemented water measures to save an estimated 30 million litres of water, kept $500,000 in the local economy that was previously leaving it in energy costs, created 40 plus local jobs in the green energy sector, and won the municipality several awards for climate leadership.”
In that example, the interest charged by Halifax also covered its program administrative costs. It was named Energy Program of the Year by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. It provides 25 year loans for solar water heaters with the first 800 users achieving a 5 percent annual return on their investment.
A program approved in Guelph this summer covers upgrades to “insulation, windows, weatherizing, climate control devices, furnaces, air conditioners and heat recovery systems” and a 5 to 25 year repayment period. It estimates a full home retrofit will cost $10,000 to $25,000 and “benefits the local economy creating jobs for contractors and equipment suppliers while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions and contributing to the sustainability objectives of the City of Guelph.”
Toronto’s Home Energy Loan Program is another example of a project already underway.