Climate change is a major public health issue with widespread impacts becoming clearer every day, so healthcare workers are often looking for ways to contribute their efforts in the fight. We are working hard to green UHN, but there are also many things we can do to cut our emissions while increasing comfort at home. Fortunately, some new government programs are supporting just that!

A brand new energy use reduction program for homeowners was recently launched by the Federal Government. It’s called the Canada Greener Homes Grant (official site), and it provides funding up to $5,600 for improving the energy efficiency of your home (insulation, air sealing, thermostats, windows, etc). Crucially, eligible measures also include heat pump installation, which is central to ridding homes of fossil fuels such as natural gas.

The program provides a great way to cover the costs associated with having a certified energy auditor come to your home to do an energy assessment and implement the recommendations that will save you money on your utility bills and lower your environmental impact. This is very similar to the $5,000 Enbridge / Union Gas Home Efficiency Rebate (official site), except with slightly different rebates, limitations, and conditions. It is currently unclear if you can tap into both the Federal program and Enbridge program for your rebates. The energy auditor list for the Federal program is at the end of the application process, and the Enbridge list is here.

The Federal government also announced a $40,000 interest-free loan program being launched later this summer that will help homeowners doing deep-retrofits of their houses. Register here to be notified when it launches.

Hopefully, these programs help anyone interested in doing some home energy retrofits as it’s a great opportunity to improve home comfort, save some money, and reduce environmental impact! I recently canceled my natural gas account after cutting fossil fuels at home and am happy to be living more within my environmental values (although it would have been nice to have access to the program at that time).