Liberals urged to renew energy efficiency program

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Brent McGillvray / Global News

MONCTON, N.B. A New Brunswick business is calling on the new Liberal government to reinstate the provinces residential energy efficiency program, scheduled to end Tuesday.

The current program offers financial incentives to homeowners who retrofit their houses to make them more efficient. But the program stopped accepting new applicants in February and homeowners have until Tuesday to complete their renovations and finish their final assessments.

Cody Firth, an energy adviser for EnerCheck Solutions, says his employer is facing a large backlog of clients.

It was very busy. A lot of people were last minute to book the assessment, he said. So with one day left, to call in and book, its very tight. And a lot of people may end up losing out on financial incentives.

Firth estimated there were close to 800 homes waiting to have their final assessment done for the program. He explained that his employer was given an exemption by the government to book into October as long as residents called before September 30, because they did not have the capacity to see all the clients before the deadline.

Theres only so many advisers with each company. So we could not provide enough appointments, for the amount of people calling in, he said. For example, I had four today. I have five tomorrow.

Reinstating the program was one of the Liberals campaign promises, but they havent given a timeline on when they will be doing it or whether the program will be the same.

To qualify for a rebate under the current program, homeowners had to contact an energy efficiency company like EnerCheck Solutions to complete an initial assessment on their homes. During the assessments, advisers like Firth, calculated the volume of the homes, checked insulation levels and the efficiency of current heating and cooling systems, and how air-tight the home was, before making recommendations.

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Liberals urged to renew energy efficiency program

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