I am pleased to announce the extension by one year, of the ecoENERGY Retrofit-Homes program.  This $400 million national program provides grants of up to $5,000 for homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient, helping pocketbooks and the environment at the same time.

Over 500,000 Canadians have already taken advantage of this program, reaping an average energy savings of 20 percent per household. These improvements collectively have saved 1.8 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Not only will our government’s renewal of the ecoENERGY Retrofit-Homes program help homeowners make their homes more energy efficient and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it will also create jobs for local businesses and contractors in Newmarket-Aurora and across the country.

There are two important new changes to the program. First, there is a new requirement for participants to register directly with the program before booking their pre-retrofit evaluation. Second, homeowners will now be required to provide receipts to their energy advisor at the time of the post-retrofit evaluation to confirm eligibility for the grant.

To participate, homeowners must first register online at ecoaction.gc.ca/homes or by calling 1-800-O-CANADA (1-800-622-6232). Then, they must hire a local service organization to send an energy advisor, licensed by Natural Resources Canada, to perform a pre-retrofit evaluation of the home (unless the property has already had an evaluation since April 2007). All upgrades, and the post-retrofit evaluation, must take place before March 31, 2012.

Homeowners who participated in the program before April 1, 2011, and have not received the maximum amount for their current property, can submit an application for improvements purchased and installed after June 6, 2011.

Only products purchased and installed after June 6, 2011, are eligible for an ecoENERGY grant. All energy retrofits and post-retrofit evaluations must be completed by March 31, 2012, and the grant application must be signed by this date. Homeowners must provide receipts to their energy advisor at the time of the post-retrofit evaluation to confirm their eligibility for the grant. Once the financial limit of $400 million has been reached nationally however, the program will close to new participants. For this reason, I encourage homeowners to register soon. 


If you have any questions, feel free to contact my office, or call the ecoENERGY hotline (toll free) at: 1-877-953-5454.