Green home renos take hit with loss of rebates
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Updated: August 28, 2009 4:05 PM
The province is pulling the plug early on its LiveSmart BC rebates that subsidized energy efficient home upgrades to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Companies that specialize in the growing green industry say they were sideswiped by the provincial announcement earlier this month.
Makers and sellers of heat pumps and energy-efficient windows and furnaces were given one day's notice the rebate program would be cut off Aug. 15.
There are still federal incentives to build green, but consumers who were getting $1,570 back for an energy smart furnace will now be offered just half that with the loss of the LiveSmart BC rebates.
The rebate on heat-efficient windows falls from $70 to $40 now, said Brian Strom, owner of Surrey-based Home Smart Home Improvements.
"Will it have an impact? Will people think about it? Yes," he said.
Strom hasn't yet laid off any employees, but said his firm's expansion plans are now in limbo.
"We were going to expand into Nanaimo, but we're giving that second thought now."
Energy minister Blair Lekstrom said the $60-million program, unveiled in April 2008 and intended to run three years, reached its funded target of 40,000 home energy assessments in only 15 months.
Home owners who have been through their initial energy audit still have until March 31, 2011 to complete their retrofits and collect their rebates.
So far 11,000 homeowners have finished their energy overhauls.
Federal incentives remain in place and have been boosted by 25 per cent recently.
Lekstrom said the province remains committed to supporting energy efficiency and to reducing greenhouse gases by 33 per cent by 2020.
Energy-saving products that have been exempt from provincial sales tax will become even more expensive next July, when the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) takes effect and is applied to them.
Another green program aimed at helping B.C. fight climate change also got dialed down in August.
B.C.'s Scrap-It program, which gives motorists cash or other incentives to trade in old vehicles, cut its payments nearly in half.
Strong public demand to turn in old clunkers for rebates ate up a $15-million one-time provincial government grant for the Scrap-It program faster than was expected.
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