City’s home energy loan program closer to expansion with money from national organization – Saskatoon Star-Phoenix

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has offered $10 million in loans and grants to support program encouraging efficiency upgrades.

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The City of Saskatoon is close to a roughly fourfold expansion of its home energy loan program after this week’s meeting of council’s finance committee, which also went over a report on cost-cutting programs enacted in other Prairie cities.

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HOME ENERGY LOAN PROGRAM

The city is close to putting the final touches on an agreement that will allow the expansion of a recently introduced program aimed at encouraging homeowners to upgrade their properties.

Saskatoon’s home energy loan program kicked off in September 2021 with a budget of $2.5 million. It provides low-interest loans for property owners to make energy efficiency improvements, such as furnace replacement, window and plumbing upgrades, insulation and solar panels. Appliances are not included.

This week, city council’s finance committee endorsed the final set of recommendations needed to secure $10 million for the program through a combination of a loan and a grant from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

City staff applied for the money prior to the program launch. Council already approved accepting the money, which will come as a $7 million loan, plus a $3 million  grant. The final step will come at council’s meeting later this month, when members will vote on a motion directing officials to sign the deal, and draft a bylaw to authorize the borrowing.

The loan portion of the money is to be provided interest-free. The city won’t have to start making payments for up to the first four years of the loan’s 20-year term, to give time to distribute money to homeowners. From there, the  FCM would be repaid using the money coming back in from the property owners.

EDMONTON, CALGARY PROGRAMS

During the COVID-19 pandemic, city councils in Calgary and Edmonton did sweeping reviews of their services to find savings or revenue opportunities.

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Saskatoon Ward 10 Coun. Randy Donauer asked during this year’s budget deliberations for city staff to report on what the two larger cities were doing, to see if Saskatoon might learn anything.

This week, Donauer said he was “excited and delighted” to read the report and learn Saskatoon is already doing most of the things undertaken by its larger neighbours. Twenty-three of the 39 initiatives proposed in the Alberta cities’ reviews — ranging from reducing the use of catering at meetings to allowing more risk in city budgets — were already underway in Saskatoon.

City staff picked two measures they felt deserved a closer look for Saskatoon: charging more for providing property information like tax certificates and assessment reports, and reviewing the lease rates charged to non-profits and service groups for city facilities.

Two of the 39 proposals were found not to apply to Saskatoon. The remaining 10 cost-cutting or revenue-generating ideas would require city council to direct more study. These include proposals to charge for parking at city parks and to lease city golf courses to third-party operators.

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