OTTAWA – The federal government says the popular ecoENERGY home retrofit program is not necessarily dead – it’s just under review.
But opposition critics say the program – which gives grants of up to $5,000 to make homes more energy efficient – has definitely croaked. And they say that will deter Canadians from retrofitting their homes and put emerging clean technology companies out of business.
The Natural Resources Department announced Wednesday that retrofit grants are no longer available for anyone who had not booked a home energy audit by March 31.
That’s because there are already enough applications to eat up the full $300 million remaining in the program.
Natural Resources Minister Christian Paradis says the program will continue to operate this year, but the future is uncertain because all government programs are being reviewed with an eye to cutting costs.
“It is not cancelled,” Paradis insisted Thursday.
But the opposition wasn’t buying that.
Liberal environment critic David McGuinty said it makes no sense to “kill the most popular energy-efficiency program for Canadians.”
“It’s really foolish. Canadians want to do the right thing, they want to make those investments. It’s a bit of help toward that end,” he said.
Even worse, McGuinty said the cancellation “will affect hundreds if not thousands of small start-up energy efficiency firms who want to now start creating the clean technology, clean-energy jobs of the future. That’s now all at risk.”
NDP environment critic Linda Duncan noted that the federal budget last month included an additional $80 million for the program and “then on the first day of the fiscal year, they can it.”
Duncan said the government is constantly telling Canadians “they have to do their part” to cut energy consumption, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The popular retrofit program was helping Canadians do just that.”
“Then what are they doing? They’re yanking the very program that people have bought into.”
