A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy - Buildings energy efficiency

One of the five pillars of Canada's CAD 15 billion strengthened climate policy announced in December 2020 is focused on energy efficiency in buildings: Making the Places Canadians Live and Gather More Affordable by Cutting Energy Waste.

Together, homes and buildings account for 13% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity use for cooling, lighting and appliances brings the total to 18%. Constructing and renovating buildings creates jobs and lowers energy bills.

 

Canadians also benefit from efforts to develop and deploy cutting-edge technologies that result in cleaner indoor air, higher resale values for homes and buildings, and less of an impact on their shared environment.

 

This plan includes a focus on energy efficiency through: 

- CAD 2.6 billion over seven years for home retrofits under the Greener Homes initiative to provide up to 700 000 grants of up to CAD 5000 for home retrofits as well as supporting home energy assessments to advise on upgrades

- CAD 1.5 billion over three years for municipal and community buildings

- Stringent targets for embodied carbon and operational emissions for Government of Canada buildings 

- Commercial and large-scale building retrofits will be supported through the Canada Infrastructure Bank's CAD 2 billion energy efficiency retrofit fund

- Investing in the tools to build a retrofit economy

- Long-term infrastructure planning

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