Calgary city councillors gave preliminary approval for a plan to borrow $30 million to expand the City’s residential Clean Energy Improvement Program (CEIP), and create one for commercial property owners.

The two separate items—one for the residential loan, and the other for commercial—came to the Jan. 21 Executive Committee meeting.

For residential, city administration asked to increase the maximum borrowing authorization from $15 million to $35 million to expand the program. They asked for $10 million to create a matching program for commercial operations.

The initial $15 million for the residential program was funded by a $10 million loan and $5 million grant from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and $5 million from Calgary’s Fiscal Stability Reserve. 

Under the CEIP, residential property owners can apply for funding to make clean energy home improvements and repay the loan from the City of Calgary through their annual property tax payments. 

The City of Calgary expects that more than 600 homeowners will participate in the initial $15 million financing. More than $9.3 million in energy-efficient upgrades have been added to Calgary homes.

Justin Smale with the City of Calgary’s climate and environment team said that they’ve seen positive results for the program to date. He also said with each of the investments there’s a positive climate impact.

“We have very strong citywide demand from Calgarians on this program, with every quadrant in the city participating,” Smale told councillors.

Smale cited survey results showing that nearly half of the residential participants surveyed said that they wouldn’t have been able to complete the upgrades without the city’s help. More than a third of people said that they wouldn’t have installed as many upgrades.

Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean voted against both of the items, saying that the city shouldn’t be acting like a bank for these upgrades.

“I think at the end of the day, there’s a public perception, again, that the city should be involved in providing core services—your public safety, garbage removal, snow,” McLean said.

Amount of money is small given the size of the issue: Coun. Spencer

Councillors questioned the potential length of the loans, whether it was transferable, and how success of the program would be reported.

Smale said the loans are based on a repayment schedule related to the lifespan of the product installed (i.e.: furnace, 16 years, and solar panels, 20 years). The loans can either be paid out on the sale of a home or transferred on title. The success of the program will be monitored and shown via the City of Calgary’s environmental dashboard.

Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer, who moved the residential motion, said that the program activates hundreds of residents that would otherwise not be able to participate in energy efficiency upgrades.

Spencer said the Clean Energy Improvement Program is doing exactly what it is intended to do.

“Ultimately, the amount of money that we are talking about today is exceedingly small in the face of the issue that we are trying to tackle,” he said.

Outside council chambers, Mayor Jyoti Gondek said that the residential program has been oversubscribed, so investing more money in the program made sense. It would make a difference for businesses, too, she said.

“This is a really important step we can take and to be able to extend the program to businesses as well. 95 per cent of the businesses in our city are small businesses,” the mayor said.  

“If they can find energy efficiency and savings on their energy bills, it would mean so much to them.”

Ward 7 Coun. Terry Wong, who voted against the commercial expansion of the program, said that it needs to be brought back to city council in a better way. The proposed $10 million wouldn’t go very far as the provincially-imposed limit for loans is $1 million per business he said.

Coun. Wong also suggested that the energy return on money for some improvements on small, medium or large businesses varies between the businesses.

Both items were approved, and will go to the April 8 public hearing meeting of council for final approval.