Government of Nunavut to introduce renewable energy rebate program
Cabin and home owners will be eligible to receive between $5,000 and $30,000
The Government of Nunavut has set aside $345,000 to assist cabin owners and home owners with renewable energy improvements to their properties. (File photo)
The Nunavut government is hoping to reduce the territory’s greenhouse gas footprint by creating a $345,000 fund to help people make renewable energy improvements to their homes and cabins.
The money is included in the territory’s 2021-22 budget.
In 2017, Qulliq Energy Corp. introduced a net-metering program that allowed homeowners to generate their own electricity and integrate it into the corporation’s grids for an energy credit. The program’s aim was the reduce the amount of power a customer needs from the corporation and decrease Nunavut’s dependency on diesel power.
But taking advantage of the program has been difficult.
“Due to start-up cost there has not been that much of an uptake on it,” said Environment Minister Joe Savikataaq during the legislature’s committee of the whole on Friday morning.
For homeowners, this new rebate program aims to fix that by covering 50 per cent of renewable energy improvements up to $30,000.
“Take for example you spend $50,000, you send in all the receipts, then you will be reimbursed for $25,000,” said Savikataaq.
While the homeowner’s program is part of the Department of Environment’s policy, Savikataaq says that they will work with the Nunavut Housing Corporation to administer it.
Savikataaq also added that while the specifics of the program have yet to be finalized, it will be open to all Nunavummiut regardless of income.
A total of $245,000 will be set aside for the homeowner’s program with the remaining $100,000 going toward the cabin owners program.
Instead of covering a percentage of the renewable energy improvement costs, the cabin rebate will cover up to $5,000.
Savikataaq said that the cabin rebate will be administered by his department and will roll out after the homeowner’s program.
Depending on the success of the program, more funding can be made available next year, he said.
This revamp should attract more homeowners as long as the rest of the program remains intact. Though some may want an improvement to the energy credit system as well.
The government should hire the technical experts for the project to ensure safety and integrity of the power source.
EXACTLY. To get the guidance to do the job right or how will every day homeowners know Help!
They are I think, they canned a ton of people that refused to get on board with this.
People get canned for sexual harassment, for abuse of resources and breaking HR policies, Financial Managment Board violations not for going against an initiative.
Glad this funding is available. It is sad tho that these kind of assistance only shows up after a tragedy. NTI should be promoting and ensuring assistance in sustainable living within Nunavut.
GN and NTI – You have the employees to do the research and to implement health and well being of all Nunavumiut!!
Generating electricity with wind and/or solar is the easy part. But electricity is just a small part of a home’s energy consumption. If we’re talking about saving ENERGY then we have to think about the big consumers – our furnaces and boilers. There’s no easy fix for that, not in the north. It’s practically impossible to generate sufficient electricity with renewable methods to heat a home or an entire community. Oil will be king by default – there’s nothing else available. Until nuclear power generation comes along.
Just like all other programs, only for the wealthy. How many people can come with that kind of money, especially when a rebate from the GN is never a sure thing.
Max $30.000 per house means 13housescould access the programme or 68 cabins!
Not a massive investment in reducing energy costs given the cost of equipment and installation.
Umiliviniq
Instead of giving $5000 to cabin owners to pay half the cost of putting up solar panels, how about the GN give $5000 (and QIA, KIA & KitIA provide a no-cost lease of Inuit owned land) to homeless Inuit so they can build a starter house.
No matter how small, no matter how simple, a home of your own, that you can improve over time, is better than spending the winter in a tent,or a car, or a boat, or trading sexual favours for a place to sleep.
For safety reasons, those $5000 houses should have electricity, just like Social Housing. But they should use electric heating and an electric hot-plate / microwave oven, rather than a Colman stove for heat and cooking.
Nunavut imports over 1,000,000 barrels of fuel from the south every year to heat our homes and power our vehicles. That is the same as 86 Olympic size swimming pools going up in smoke every year. Utilizing hydro power holds the key to eliminating Nunavut’s utter dependence on the south. My guess is the GN knows that all to well and is content offering a few dollars to pretend they are tackling the real problem facing us all. Good for some but I could hardly call installing a few solar panels a solution, not even a band-aid, mostly it is a distraction.
ditto Jim, Nunavut; truly a welfare state, Even far as accepting peanuts to cover the causing tons of pollution… build a damn dams in each region and get it over with (town or city, and communities using power like a son-of-a-guns). Where are the mavericks to head many of the GN departments?