Energy retrofit plan was a success
This week’s news that the federal government will no longer accept new registrations for its ecoenergy Retrofit-homes program is disappointing, yet at the same time encouraging. Let me explain. It’s disappointing for obvious reasons: it provided homeowners with access to a much-needed incentive and funding to upgrade the existing housing stock across Canada.
The program also prompted homeowners to get an energy audit done on their homes so that they could learn how much energy can be saved by replacing an old furnace, air conditioning unit, or windows and doors.
Thirdly, from BILD’S perspective, the program bolstered the government’s efforts to combat the underground cash economy in home renovation services — something we work very hard at by promoting the Renomark program and educating consumers about finding a reputable contractor who is held to a higher standard. More information about the Renomark program, which is in seven provinces and 32 markets across Canada, can be found at www.renomark.ca.
Renomark contractors abide by the Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) Code of Ethics and the renovation-specific Code of Conduct, which means they provide homeowners with a detailed, written scope of work, as well as receipts. To access the ecoenergy grants, homeowners had to provide the government
The government should introduce a permanent home renovation tax rebate equal to 2.5 per cent
with legitimate receipts for the completed retrofit work.
So here’s the part that’s encouraging: more than 250,000 homeowners across Canada registered with for the ecoenergy RetrofitHomes program.
The government launched this program in 2007 and then renewed the funding last year, offering homeowners up to $5,000 for specific retrofits. There’s still time for those registered homeowners to get a grant, but they have to have the work done by March 31 and have a post-retrofit evaluation and application by June 30. (This is where I put in my shameless plug to check out that Renomark website because that’s where you’ll find the right guy or gal for the job).
The fact that the government has met its goal of registering 250,000 homeowners by March 31 is encouraging, and obviously it was a popular program.
I would bet that there would be a similar take-up on a home renovation tax rebate, which is something the CHBA has been asking the federal government to implement. To restore fairness to how home renovations are taxed and to provide an incentive for homeowners to hire legitimate tax-paying contractors rather than underground cash operators, the federal government should introduce a permanent home renovation tax rebate equal to 2.5 per cent of the total cost of a home renovation.
While there’s momentum, it seems a waste not to capitalize on it. The existing housing stock needs to be renovated, and homeowners know it. Now the federal government knows how to encourage it — time to turn a disappointment into something encouraging. Paul Golini is the chairman the Building Industry and Land Development Association ( www.bildgta.ca) and can be found on Twitter (@ bildgta), Facebook, Youtube and BILD’S blog
www.bildblogs.ca).