More information on the impact of Calgary’s resilient roofing program is needed to determine if the incentive should be brought back, said one Calgary city councillor.

Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal brought forward a Notice of Motion for technical review that, if approved by city council, would have city administration review the outcome of the last Resilient Roofing Rebate Program to determine if it should be reimplemented to protect more Calgary households.

After a couple of devastating hailstorms battered residents in northeast and southeast communities, the City of Calgary created the resilient roofing program which provided up to $3,000 in incentives for homes that upgraded their shingles to be impact resistant.

Roughly $2.175 million was doled out for those homeowners choosing Class 4 impact-resistant roofing in the last tranche of funding, with 1,600 rebates awarded. The program was, however, oversubscribed. It ended in 2022.

This year’s August 5 hailstorm caused more than $2.8 billion in insurable damages.

Coun. Dhaliwal said that he wants to go back to the program and do a post-mortem on it, to determine lessons learned and evaluate it for a possible return.

“I just want to understand what was the value of it? How did it impact people, and also, how does it fit into overall climate strategy?” Dhaliwal said.

Dhaliwal said that any support they can provide to citizens, who are getting hit more frequently and severely with weather-related damage, is worth looking into. He said there’s been no help from the province or the federal government for these disasters, and residents have been having a difficult time with extended delays in insurance payouts.

“This program is more of immediate help. If it is available for people to kind of go and say, ‘OK, I can take advantage of this program, and then city to say, Yes, this program is making a difference.’ That’s what I want to understand,” he said.

“I think it is making a difference. But we just want to understand that that is true.”

Is it the best use of public money?

When the program ended in 2022, Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian voted against reinstating it at that time. She’s still not convinced it’s the right way to spend taxpayer dollars but understands why Coun. Dhaliwal wants further information on the program’s impact.

“We’ve been very impacted by hail, but I think we have to have a conversation with administration. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this program. How did it work last time?” Mian said.

“Is it the direction we need to go and is that the best use of our public money when we do have insurance that can help people with that? It’s going to be an interesting discussion.”

Given the city’s current fiscal bind, Mian was reluctant to spend more money on it. Instead, she said more focus should be placed on building more resiliently, particularly around vinyl siding, which she said, “is not working.”

Coun. Dhaliwal understand some won’t be in favour of the budgetary ask. He said, however, there are pockets of money available that could fund an annual program, like from unallocated secondary suite program cash. There’s $4 million there, he said.

The Ward 5 councillor also knows some of his colleagues believe this is what insurance is for. He countered by saying that when there were protests in the Beltline, there was support provided to local businesses despite many of them having disruption insurance.

“This is no different. This is where people are. This is where people are living. This is affecting their daily lives, their safety,” he said.

The item was approved on technical merit and will be debate at an upcoming full meeting of Calgary city council.