B.C. welcomes warmer reception from feds to streamline heat pump perks

After a bit of a cold shoulder last week, the B.C. government is welcoming a warmer reception from the federal government, to work together to help British Columbians heat their homes for less.

The federal government has announced it will work with B.C. to streamline the rebate process, making it less complicated to switch to heat pumps. The plan would transform the process, which currently requires several applications, into a one-stop-shop approach.

B.C. Premier David Eby says the province is ready to work with Ottawa.

“It’s quite urgent, people are facing a cold winter ahead in British Columbia, an expensive winter ahead, and they need support. So we’re ready to go with the federal government on deployment,” said Eby Friday at an announcement with federal ministers.

The province laid out its plea to the federal government in a letter earlier this year, saying it wanted to work with Ottawa to help middle-to-low income earners afford the very expensive switch.

“It’s a massively expensive way to heat your house and it’s the most polluting way of heating your house,” Eby said of oil heating, adding the working class needs “support to be able to switch.”

Eby said during the announcement Friday that there had been a breakthrough in conversations.

“Indicating that the federal government is willing to look now at partnering with British Columbia in this important work of supporting people in switching over. We have lots of work to do with them. In fact, we are going to be the next pilot site,” he explained.

Last week, Ottawa surprised and disappointed Eby, when it offered a heat-pump assistance plan to Atlantic provinces and not B.C.

However, on Friday, the federal government said the plan all along was for all regions to be included.

‘We were really taken aback’

Minister of Energy, Mines, and Low Carbon Innovation Josie Osborne, who was the one to pen the note to the federal government this year, admits the last week has been frustrating.

“We were really taken aback, frankly, about the announcement that the prime minister made. But it has given us the opportunity though, for myself, in fact, to talk to Minister (Jonathan) Wilkinson, and for the premier to be speaking to federal government representatives as well about just how important this is for British Columbia,” she told CityNews Friday.

“We have one of the most ambitious climate plans across North America, we’ve been an excellent partner to the federal government, and we know that British Columbians want to make this choice, they want to make the choice as affordable as possible for their homes.”

Osborne notes the federal government currently has two separate programs — one for those with oil furnaces and another for those with natural gas furnaces, to switch to heat pumps.

However, she explains there are often “hoops and obstacles people have to go through to get that.”

“We want to make this easy. We want to see it be just as easy for somebody with an oil furnace as with a natural gas furnace, to access the same level of rebates, to move away from fossil fuels using B.C.’s clean electricity and doing it in a way that is as affordable and easy as it can be,” Osborne said.