Comparing home-retrofit financing models for Greater Sudbury

The City of Greater Sudbury plans to undertake a study to evaluate the feasibility of various home retrofit financing programs aimed at taking action on climate change and reducing community greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. Greater Sudbury faces some unique challenges as a community with low population growth. The city has approximately 69,000 residential buildings, 20,000 of which were built before 1960, and new buildings are rarely added to the housing stock. The study will look at financial mechanisms for retrofitting these older buildings, focusing on the goal of retrofitting 3,250 homes in the first four years of operation. The study will examine various types of financing, including, Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), utility on-bill repayment financing and direct third-party lending. The study aims to address areas such as education and outreach, participation from municipal legal and financial departments, the real estate sector’s understanding of PACE liens, and local contractor capacity. The municipality will hire a consultant to do a landscape assessment of local challenges and opportunities, existing building stock, current complementary programs, and contractor capacity. Meetings for the public and key program stakeholders will be held to clearly understand policy goals. Finally, the consultant will develop potential options for a retrofit financing program and identify the preferred program model. This study is linked to Greater Sudbury’s Community Energy and Emissions Plan, EarthCare Sudbury Action Plan’s Green Buildings section and the city’s Official Plan. Innovative aspect(s): A municipal retrofit financing program is innovative in the context of Northern Ontario. The study will take local context into consideration by focusing on residential space heating and ensuring that the program supports aging in place for the older population. Replicability: · Members of the Project Management Team sit on the Northern Climate Change Network, where they will be able to share the results of the feasibility study · The team will develop resources to share with the public and educational stakeholders, including local post-secondary institutions (Project description from original funding application)