The federal government says it plans to phase out oil-burning furnaces in new homes over the next few years and encourage homeowners and businesses to switch to heat pumps.
The finalized Canada Green Building Strategy, released today, outlines Ottawa’s priorities for decarbonizing buildings, the third largest source of climate-changing carbon emissions in Canada.
The strategy does not target natural gas or propane heating sources, and while the document does not detail how Ottawa intends to phase out oil-burning furnaces, Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson has said the federal government intends to use regulation and investment to encourage the switch to heat pumps.
“We’re moving towards banning the use of heating oil in new builds. This simply reflects the fact that there are plenty of alternatives to heating oil,” Wilkinson told CBC ahead of the strategy announcement.
“Heating fuel is very expensive and it’s the most polluting fuel we use to heat our homes.”
A strategy focused on new construction
In Canada’s Green Building Strategy, the government commits to putting in place a “regulatory framework that will enable the phasing out of expensive, polluting oil heating systems in new builds as soon as 2028.”
Heat pumps are more efficient than traditional space conditioning because they use electricity and don’t burn fossil fuels, and they move hot or cold air rather than generating heat. that.
According to the Building Strategy document, some heat pumps can heat a home when temperatures drop below -30 C, and cool it when temperatures rise above 40 C. Heat pumps are often paired with a back-up heating source in case of extended periods of severe cold.
Heat pumps are more energy efficient than oil furnaces, do not emit toxic fumes, and do not cause costly oil spills. Heating oil prices are also susceptible to global price shocks.
To meet its emissions targets, analysts say Canada needs a boom in green retrofits of homes and workplaces, with concerns about labor and funding standing in the way.
Cost reduction
But heat pumps also come with significant upfront costs: According to Efficiency Canada, the average cost of a heat pump in Canada is $18,400, compared to the average price of an oil heater with tank replacement of $6,500.
Wilkinson said affordable housing programs run by the federal government in conjunction with some state governments can help lower the cost of heat pumps.
Through Oil to Heat Pump Economics Improvement (OHPA) ProgramHomeowners can receive grants of up to $15,000 to install heat pumps, but the program is limited to Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and is run jointly by the federal and provincial governments.
More than one million Canadian homes are heated with oil, mostly in Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia and British Columbia.
The strategy provides few specifics about how the phase-out will work, but says it will include “necessary exemptions” for places with insufficient electricity supply or where backup heating is needed.
The strategy is intended to act as a “federal backstop” since Quebec and Nova Scotia have both committed to banning oil-burning furnaces, the document said.
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, buildings are the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country, after the oil and gas and transportation sectors, with emissions expected to total 89 megatons in 2022, equivalent to the emissions of 201 million barrels of oil.
Canada has been tracking the country’s greenhouse gas emissions since 2022 and has been on a downward trend since before the pandemic began in 2019.
But to reach its emissions reduction targets, the country will need to achieve a sustained reduction of as much as 45 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels.
The federal government has pledged to reduce emissions from the building sector by 37 percent compared to 2005 levels, and to make the sector net-zero by 2050.
Need for renovation
Most building emissions come from air conditioners, furnaces and boilers. Switching from fossil fuels to electric heat pumps can significantly reduce a building’s carbon footprint.
The strategy places emphasis on residential buildings and highlights the need to retrofit existing buildings to make them more energy efficient.
Ottawa is giving Atlantic Canadians more time to switch to heat pumps. Last week, the federal government announced a three-year suspension of the carbon tax on heating fuels. CBC Nova Scotia’s Amy Smith spoke with Wayne Grossko, an environmental studies professor at Dalhousie University, about the impact that will have.
“The big burden in the context of climate change planning is on buildings because it’s so broad,” Wilkinson told CBC. “We have 16 million homes, most of which will still be around until 2050. Nearly all of them are going to need significant retrofitting.”
Wilkinson said over the next 20 years, the government will focus on helping Canadians make the major renovations they need through existing grant and low-interest loan programs.
The document also says homebuilders need to build more “green, affordable homes from the get-go”, and warns that the use of materials made in carbon-intensive processes, such as cement and steel, could undo much of the industry’s progress in reducing emissions.
“In terms of housing, Canada needs at least 3.5 million new homes by 2030,” the strategy document states. “But if built using current methods, using materials with significant ‘carbon content,’ and to minimum building standards, these buildings would add 18 megatons of greenhouse gases to carbon dioxide emissions per year.”
The federal government doesn’t have many options to change how housing is built.
The strategy is careful to point out that while Ottawa can set federal construction standards, it is up to provincial and territorial governments to adopt and implement them.
The strategy says Ottawa can use its purchasing and spending power to encourage provinces, territories, municipalities and the building industry to go more green.
The federal government has invested more than $20 billion in green building projects since 2016, including the relaunch of the Greener Homes Grant program to help low- and moderate-income households, according to the documents.
