Case study: Bringing energy efficiency to Saskatoon homes

Summary

Residential homes contribute approximately 25 percent of Saskatoon's emissions, highlighting their significance in the city's strategy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. To address this, Saskatoon introduced the Home Energy Loan Program (HELP), offering homeowners low-interest loans for energy-efficiency and renewable-energy retrofits. The city is also exploring options to expand the program to multi-unit residential and commercial buildings.

Background

In 2019, the City of Saskatoon, SK, identified energy-efficient home retrofits as a key opportunity to reduce its emissions. With 79 percent of homes built before 2006, many are due for upgrades. The high rate of home ownership, along with the fact that 16 percent of households face energy poverty, makes this an important issue to address.

Project goals

The city wanted to make it easier for single-family homeowners to improve energy efficiency, switch to renewable energy and reduce water use. To support this, they launched a property assessed clean energy (PACE) program, offering low-interest loans and rebates to help make these upgrades more affordable.

Approach

Saskatoon launched its Home Energy Loan Program (HELP) in September 2021 using internal funding and expanded it in 2022 with financial support from FCM’s Green Municipal Fund (GMF) and its Community Efficiency Financing (CEF) initiative. It is the first program of its kind in Saskatchewan.

Through HELP, owners of single-family homes who are in good standing with the city can apply for home-retrofit loans that are repaid through property taxes over 5-, 10- or 20-year fixed terms. Loans are tied to the property, meaning that if someone sells their home, the new owner takes on the loan payments.

The city prioritizes and encourages energy-efficiency retrofits as opposed to solely transitioning to electricity, since natural gas heating is more affordable than electricity and the province’s electrical grid remains reliant on fossil fuels.

The program was immediately popular and needed a waitlist shortly after applications opened. It includes:

• Low-interest, fixed-rate loans of between $1,000 and $40,000 to cover eligible retrofits, or up to $60,000 for deep energy retrofits that result in a reduction in energy usage of more than 50 percent.
• Rebates for qualifying homes and projects.
• Additional benefits such as higher rebates and waived admin fees for income-qualified households.
• Additional tools and services (some introduced later) including a vetted contractor list, energy coaching, a solar potential map, a real estate agent training program and a home energy map that estimates a home’s energy score and suggests ways to improve.

Barriers

There was a high demand for EnerGuide audits, creating long wait times due to limited local resources. However, wait times improved as new companies offering these services became available. The program also created a high demand for contractors, which affected timelines, since many renovations cannot be completed during winter. This situation has since improved due to training and relationship-building, including offering contractors a webinar and a two-day boot camp focused on building envelopes and highly efficient technologies and equipment.

Results

Program results as of October 2024 include:

• 319 homeowners approved to participate
• 126 participants with completed projects
• 8 completed deep energy retrofits
• 35 GJ average energy reduction per household
• 2.1 tCO2e average greenhouse gas reduction per household
• $3,145,312 paid out in loans
• $188,659 paid out in rebates, $113,960 of which went to lower-income households
• $20,211 in utility cost savings for homeowners after the program’s first year

The top three retrofits undertaken by participants included upgrading windows and doors, installing high-efficiency furnaces and insulating attics.

Of participants who answered the city’s survey, 89 percent said they were satisfied with the financing they received, and of those, only 4 percent said they would have done the same upgrades without financing—demonstrating the program’s impact in increasing the number of home energy upgrades in the city.

Benefits

Equity and inclusion are an important part of HELP. Thirty percent of participants are from income-qualified households, which exempts them from the $500 administration fee and gives them access to additional rebates, such as $180 for a smart thermostat and up to $1,200 for window replacements.

The program has delivered strong economic benefits. In its first year, HELP is estimated to have generated $3.5 million in economic impact, added $280,000 in production taxes and creating 14 new jobs. An economic impact study provided by the Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority (SREDA) estimates that by the end of 2025, the program will generate an additional $10.3 million in total economic output, $810,000 in additional taxes and 43 new jobs.

Before the existence of HELP and Canada Greener Homes, air-source heat pumps were virtually unheard of in Saskatchewan. Thanks in part to their promotion through HELP as an energy-efficient alternative to air conditioners, their use has become more normalized in the province.

Lessons learned

As the program has progressed, the city has adjusted various aspects to reflect learnings. For example: 

• Deadlines were added to program requirements to encourage homeowners to complete projects more quickly and to allow for inactive participants to be replaced with those on the waitlist.
• To reduce the upfront cost barrier for homeowners and ensure timely payments to contractors, a 30 percent upfront contractor deposit payment was introduced and the minimum cost requirement for installment payments was removed. This allowed projects of any size to receive loan advances to cover contractor payments.
• The threshold for income-qualified households was increased to allow more residents to benefit from the additional rebates.
• Rebates were increased and made available to more participants, in part to fill the gap left by the closure of the Canada Greener Homes Grant program.

In addition, the timing of the energy coaching program could have been better. Since it was introduced after HELP was at capacity, it was predominantly used as a general community knowledge resource, which led to low participation. Future iterations might integrate coaching and energy retrofit education more closely to offer participants more guidance through the process, as a sort of concierge service.

Next steps

The current iteration of HELP is expected to run until June 2026. The city is working on its replacement, a new PACE program that will be available not just to single-family homeowners, but to multi-unit residential and commercial buildings as well.