The Town of Huntsville is considering an application, which if successful, would enable the municipality to launch a home retrofit financing program for residents.
The program is offered through the Green Municipal Fund, delivered through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and funded by the Government of Canada. It is being lauded as a way to help communities of all sizes develop innovative financing programs to help homeowners cut their greenhouse emissions and reduce their energy bills while creating jobs in the community.
In order to access the program, the municipality would have to come up with 20 per cent of the total program cost as recoverable debt, according to a report presented to Huntsville’s general committee on June 29 by Julia McKenzie, Huntsville director of financial services/treasurer.
She recommended that the municipality apply to access the full amount available, which means it would have to come up with $2 million in recoverable funds.
“A loan contribution of $2 million will enable a full $10 million application from FCM. It is recommended that the full amount of the grant ($10,000,000) be applied for at this time to maximize the amounts available to Huntsville for this program under the current funding envelope. The $2 million in total of the Town’s contributions to the program, if approved by Council, will be included in the 2023 budget with the related funding source. It is important to note that the funds contributed by the Town will be recoverable as it will be in the form of debt and likely have a low chance of default as it will be placed for collection on the property tax account. In the event the property is sold, the debt will continue to be recoverable on that property tax account. In the event the property tax account is in arrears, the Town would work with that tax payer to get the payments caught up and as a last resort would more likely than not be recovered through a tax sale,” stated McKenzie.
She was also recommending that the loans be attached to the homes under a Local Improvement Change, not unlike a water and sewer connection charges. “Under this mechanism the loans would be attached to the property and not to the owner. This has two significant benefits; first it assists the homeowner with access to capital for high upfront costs of retrofits and secondly, it enables the transfer of the lien to a new owner in the event the applicant sells the home before the loan is paid back. This is particularly useful when there is a longer payback on the retrofit,” she added.
Third-party administration fees would be covered by the program and the idea is that eventually, it will become self-funded.
Deputy Mayor Nancy Alcock said the program makes sense and she supports it, while Huntsville Mayor Karin Terziano questioned whether a property might be harder to sell with a lean on it.
“From the point of view of the buyer, if you have a house that’s energy efficient, I think that would outweigh the fact that there’s a loan on it because your energy costs would be lower. So you may have a higher property tax bill that has that change on it but also have lower energy bills.” McKenzie also said an energy efficiency system is being mapped out which would put scores on homes and communities “so it’s actually more valuable if your house is one of these properties… it’s actually the real estate associations that are driving this in those communities.”
McKenzie also told committee she did not anticipate the retrofit loans would be for more than 10 years.
Councillor Jonathan Wiebe told committee that most parts of Europe have already implemented similar programs “and they’re seeing that the values of homes – it’s really becoming worth it and making a real impact on… how people shop for homes, etcetera.”
Committee approved the recommendation to move forward with the application. If approved, more details are expected to become available then including the proposed interest rates for the loans.
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox three times per week!
Click here to support local news
John Rivière-Anderson says
This is an excellent green initiative! Bravo!
Mardi Butts says
Thank You!! This sounds like an opportunity for anyone who can or wants to be a part of repairing our planet, in order to pass a better environment on to our Grandchildren. I particularly appreciate the loan being directly attached to the property and not the owner. Karen’s comment regarding difficulties with having a lien when selling a property has merit, but I believe the purpose of the lien will counter the negative effect.
My vote is placed on a common sense, forward thinking future. Keep on with the momentum towards an affordable, greener life.