N.B. to spend more on heat pump program, but will fall short of clearing waitlist – New Brunswick | Globalnews.ca
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New Brunswick announced that it will spend another $30 million on the enhanced energy savings program, but the additional funds won’t be enough to clear the existing waiting list for the program.
The additional funds are on top of the $70 million already earmarked for the program over the last two years, which provides efficiency audits and free mini-split heat pumps and insulation upgrades for households making under $70,000 per year.
According to NB Power CEO Lori Clark, it would require about $150 million to clear the existing waiting list of about 16,000 people. That means another $120 million would be needed to clear the current waitlist.
“We’ll have additional money required to complete the waiting list,” Clark told the legislature’s public accounts committee last month.
“We’ve got a budget of about $10 to $15 million per year for that program but it will require additional funding from the provincial government or some sort of government to complete the waiting list.”
Each home costs about $10,000 for an electric baseboard conversion and about $30,000 for an oil heat conversion. The budget for this year before the additional money was announced was $21.8 million and $37.4 million, respectively.
The opposition Liberals have long said that the province isn’t putting enough into the program to ensure that people have access to savings as quickly as possible. Only about 5,200 homes have been approved for the program so far.
“The government undershot immensely the money needed to actually really start checking off those boxes,” said Liberal energy critic Keith Chiasson.
Despite challenges in the initial rollout and the size of the waiting list, Clark said the benefits of the program are clear.
“We are seeing about a $460 annual savings. That’s the average annual savings for those that have had the benefit of the program and one of the biggest parts is the insulation,” she said.
“So that’s about a 23 per cent reduction in customer’s bills that have gone through the program.”
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