Measures announced in the federal government’s housing plan include funding for energy efficiency retrofits like the installation of heat pumps and home energy labeling, while helping to make homes more climate-friendly and cheaper to heat. But sustainability proponents are also flagging missed opportunities to meet national climate commitments by 2050.
An estimated $903.5 million is being invested into the Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program as part of the Solving the Housing Crisis: Canada’s Housing Plan. “It’s a good start and now we hope this investment is matched by all other orders of government and utilities to increase the pace of deep retrofits and meet our carbon reduction targets and ensure new housing is built right the first time,” said Betsy Agar, director of the buildings program at the Pembina Institute.
Pembina’s recent modeling estimates that federal and provincial governments and utilities will need to give an average annual investment of $2.8 billion from 2025 to 2050 to provide zero cost retrofits for low-income households living with energy poverty. “Incentives and subsidies are only part of the puzzle, provincial energy efficiency regulations need to be updated to align with net-zero goals that include targets and accountability,” Agar added.
Deep retrofits can make housing more climate resilient and affordable to heat and cool through low-carbon materials, new technologies and integration with smart electricity grids. Agar said the government must boost new construction that is climate-safe without burdening homeowners with high energy costs and the need for future retrofits.
Pembina recommends tying supports for new builds to upper building code tiers to protect homeowners from increasingly frequent extreme weather and escalating utility costs.
“While these investments represent progress on some priority issues for greener housing, it leaves significant gaps on other critical housing safety and affordability challenges for Canadians and falls short of what’s needed to reach a rate of 600,000 home retrofits per year,” she said. “A successful market transformation also requires provincial regulations and policies to phase out fossil fuel-based heating, require resilient construction and prioritize the health and safety of Canadians. We look forward to seeing a suite of tools and mechanisms built into the much-anticipated Canada Green Building Strategy.
As communities face escalating climate risks, such as frequent and severe weather events, the Insurance Bureau of Canada also noted how the pre-budget plan omits details on how future homes will be resilient to climate change.
“While we commend the federal government for delivering a plan to build 3.87 million new homes by 2031, these new homes must be built in the right way and in the right places,” said Craig Stewart, vice-president, climate change and federal issues at IBC. “The federal government must lead by urgently updating the National Building Code to incorporate resilience and deploy necessary programming restrictions to discourage continued building and rebuilding of homes in high risk flood and wildfire zones.”
He said the housing strategy is the right place to incorporate climate resilience measures recommended by the Task Force for Housing and Climate and Climate Proof Canada.
“Insured damage related to extreme weather events in Canada has a clear upward trend with losses exceeding $3 billion annually in both 2022 and 2023,” he noted. “By comparison, between 1983 and 2009, Canadian insurers averaged $400 million a year in losses related to severe weather.
“Just this week, the government warned that 2024 will likely be another record-setting wildfire season, and highlighted the need to invest in measures to adapt to our changing climate. The choices we make now will determine how prepared Canada will be to cope with the risks we face in the next few years and beyond.”
