Central Saanich Municipal Financing Program for Home Energy Upgrades

The District of Central Saanich will run a two-year pilot to test a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing program on 50 homes. The program will provide zero-interest loans of up to $12,000 to replace oil home heating systems with electric air-source heat pumps. A third-party administrator will run the program in collaboration with municipal staff. Pre- and post-retrofit EnerGuide evaluations, combined with participant satisfaction surveys will be used to produce a final report that will make recommendations for future scaling up of the program.

The initiative is linked to Central Saanich’s Climate Leadership Plan, and the Transitions 2050 program (GMF 16382) which seeks to develop strategies to increase heat pump and whole-home energy retrofits in the Vancouver Island region. This project is also complementary to an initiative by the larger District of Saanich (pop.: 114,000), which was approved for GMF funding in 2019 (GMF16580).

Innovative aspect(s): PACE-style financing programs in rural agricultural municipalities are considered uncommon in the Canadian context, and unprecedented in the British Columbian context. Smaller municipalities face hurdles through lessened staff capacity, smaller tax bases, and lower income residents. This pilot will address these issues by selecting a third-party program administrator, designing a streamlined process that reduces overhead costs of the project, and offering loans to homeowners at 0% interest to increase accessibility of the program.

Replicability: The British Columbia Community Charter does not currently include streamlined legislation for PACE-style financing programs, and the province has cited concerns about the capacity of local governments to take on such a program. Encouragingly, the recent “Economic Recovery Plan” produced for BC includes a budget line for PACE road mapping and a small amount of piloting. If successful, the pilot in Central Saanich will provide proof-of-concept that local governments in BC, especially small rural municipalities, have the capacity to deliver PACE financing programs. Data and insights from Central Saanich’s pilot would be valuable to the development of provincial strategies and would enable both a wider and earlier scope to integrate real-world application into emerging design.

Environmental benefits

• Each participating oil-heated home is anticipated to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 97% and annual energy usage by 51%.
• Total environmental impact of retrofitting 50 homes will result in reductions of 350 tCO2e per year and 4,400 GJ of energy consumed.
• Climate resilience is improved through cooling capabilities of electric heat pumps, in anticipation of hotter summer days & nights in the region

Economic benefits

• Participants of the program will see a reduction in their energy bills that are expected to more than offset the cost of annual repayment
• The program will benefit local businesses such as heat pump contractors and energy advisors
• Green stimulus to the local economy in the wake of COVID-19 unemployment
• 0% interest loans (rather than rebates) make the program more attractive to low-income residents
• Long-term self-sustaining finance model allows for reinvestment into future retrofit projects for the community

Social benefits

• Improved air quality in homes through air filtration and humidity control, which is particularly impactful for senior citizens, who make up 42% of households in Central Saanich
• Decreased risk of oil spills and increased residential safety as a result
• Increased public awareness of homes as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions