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Energy program wasn't wasteful - Fraser Rees

I am writing to express our deep concern about recent cuts to the EnerGuide for Houses service provided by Natural Resources Canada.

I am writing to express our deep concern about recent cuts to the EnerGuide for Houses service provided by Natural Resources Canada.

While CanSpec Inspection Services will continue to offer energy evaluations that will help homeowners save up to 30 percent on their energy bills, we are deeply concerned that grants are no longer available from Natural Resources Canada for homeowners.

These grants provided incentive for customers to retrofit their homes to make them more energy efficient.

While we appreciate the need of the federal government to make certain cuts, we would have thought that wasteful and non-measurable programs would be eliminated, not a program like EnerGuide for Houses which is incredibly successful, entirely measurable, and in fact, drives economic activity for thousands of businesses across Canada.

The federal government says 50 percent of the program budget is administrative overhead. This is false.

Last year's $44.3 million budget included 54 percent for retrofit incentives and 34 percent to cost-share EnerGuide for Houses evaluations. Thus, fully 88 percent of budget went directly to benefit Canadians and their homes. Only 11.5 percent was spent on administration.

In the City of Greater Sudbury, CanSpec Inspection Services has assessed 1,130 homes in the past 12 months. Of those homes, 449 homeowners performed upgrades.

This is above the provincial and national average. Based on previous calculations, this represents about $450,000 or more in energy savings.

This also represents approximately $5.5 million actually spent locally on renovations/upgrades over this period

Fraser Rees
Director
CanSpec Inspection Services
Greater Sudbury