Overview
The CGBS comes at a critical time. To reach our climate goals, reduce monthly bills and increase the supply of Canada’s housing stock, we need to accelerate the retrofit of approximately 11 million buildings and construct millions of new greener buildings in the coming decades. A renewal of Canada’s buildings sector is underway, one that has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of sustainable jobs and prosperity for all regions of Canada, while lowering monthly bills for homeowners, tenants, and businesses.
The buildings sector has an important role to play when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improving resiliency to climate hazards, such as floods, wildfires and hurricanes. The Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act enshrines in legislation the Government of Canada’s commitment to reduce GHG emissions by 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2030 and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Buildings account for 18% of Canada’s emissions, when including electricity-related emissions, and is the third largest emitting sector after the oil and gas sector and the transportation sector. Almost all buildings’ operating emissions (>96%) come from space and water heating from the use of equipment that runs on fossil fuels, such as natural gas furnaces and boilers, while further emissions are embodied in construction materials used in buildings, such as concrete, steel, aluminum and wood.
The technology already exists to reduce emissions efficiently and effectively from heating equipment in buildings. Electrification is the most cost-effective and efficient approach to decarbonizing buildings in most parts of Canada. Ultimately, moving away from the use of fossil fuel heating equipment, towards alternatives such as heat pumps, is an essential step to reducing the operational emissions from buildings. It is necessary to work with provinces and territories, communities and Indigenous Peoples to initiate a phased approach to transition away from fossil fuels for space and water heating. Starting with a focus on the most expensive, high emitting fuel – heating oil – can support a stepped approach to pursuing buildings decarbonization with affordability in mind.
In addition to combating climate change, green building retrofits and building green from the start can help make buildings more livable, improve air quality and significantly reduce overall costs, including by reducing monthly energy bills and avoiding the costly impacts of extreme weather. As Canada accelerates its investments in housing, as outlined in Canada’s Housing Plan, it is important to ensure homes are affordable to maintain and operate. It is critical that the green buildings sector renewal leaves nobody behind.
Beyond climate and affordability considerations, this renewal also presents an enormous economic opportunity. From the need to draw on skilled trades and supply low carbon construction materials, to the growth of clean technology businesses and innovative building designs, Canada is uniquely positioned to lead globally while becoming more prosperous locally. Each region of Canada is presented with unique circumstances for this transition, based on its geography, natural resources, and local markets and expertise. The CGBS seeks to seize each of these opportunities over the next critical decade and beyond.
The CGBS aims to decarbonize and improve the resiliency of Canada’s buildings stock, while supporting affordability, job creation and economic growth. The CGBS centers around three priorities:
- Accelerate retrofits
- Build green and affordable from the start
- Shape the buildings sector of the future
These priorities were shaped by an extensive engagement process with buildings sector industry partners, Indigenous partners, municipalities, provinces, territories and the Canadian public. The published What We Heard Report summarizes the online submissions, written responses to the CGBS discussion paper, Ministerial roundtables, and multi-lateral conferences held over the last two years to inform the CGBS.
Importantly, we are not starting from zero. The federal government has invested heavily in support of buildings sector decarbonization goals since 2016 which has provided a foundation of knowledge and awareness across the sector for more ambitious decarbonization. The buildings sector is already taking action to advance priorities, and the Government of Canada will help to accelerate them with a series of initiatives and investments, including with nearly $1 billion in new, targeted federal investments announced in Budget 2024, as well as other measures, across three categories of buildings:
- Residential buildings, where we live - through flagship programs like the Canada Greener Homes Grant and Loan programs, which have received over 590,000 applications for grants and 78,000 applications for loans since their launch in 2021, to help homeowners retrofit their homes to be more energy efficient - and programs focused on affordability with the Oil to Heat Pump Affordability Program and the Canada Greener Affordable Housing Program. As announced in Budget 2024, we are moving forward with the next phase of home retrofit programming with $800M in new funding for the Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program, while cracking down on renovictions as part of a proposed new Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights. We will continue developing a national approach to home energy labelling, which will empower prospective home buyers with information about the energy efficiency of their new home, with the support of energy auditors.
- Commercial / institutional buildings, as well as community buildings, where we work, study and play, with initiatives like theDeep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative to accelerate the development of deep retrofit projects, adoption of the highest energy performance standards, and private and public sector partnerships with the Canada Infrastructure Bank. As announced in Budget 2024, we are expanding our work with an investment of $73.5M – with programs such as the ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager platform – to support the implementation of local initiatives including benchmarking, labelling and disclosure policies, and better, more ambitious building performance standards to further reduce emissions and lower energy bills.
- Federally owned buildings: As the country’s largest building asset owner and procurer of construction materials, the Government of Canada is helping decarbonize and improve the resiliency of Canada’s buildings sector through its Greening Government Strategy (GGS) and Greening Government Fund. Through the GGS, the Government of Canada’s is reducing environmental impacts associated with federal building operations and construction projects, while enhancing the climate resiliency of federal assets, services, and operations. Moreover, by implementing a ‘buy clean’ policy approach through the GGS, the Government of Canada is promoting the adoption of construction materials with low embodied carbon and that are renewable such as wood, reclaimed or recycled materials, and low-emission concrete and steel.
New federal actions will make further strides towards these priorities:
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Greening the buildings sector remains a substantial and complex undertaking. Buildings have long lifecycles and therefore reducing emissions, while also improving resilience to climate change, requires important investments that often need multi-year planning. The Federal government, provinces, territories, Indigenous communities, and municipalities must work together, alongside home and building owners, to maximize the impact of our collective actions, while simultaneously ensuring that residential buildings are constructed at the pace and scale required to tackle the housing crisis. New construction needs to be high performance – adopting the highest viable tier of the National Energy Code for Buildings (for larger buildings) and of the National Building Code (for residential homes and small buildings) – and consider embodied carbon (in construction materials).
Alongside governments, the private sector has an important role to play in providing capital, expertise, and leadership to transform Canada’s buildings. Financial institutions are now starting to recognize their role in this space and must continue to build momentum and deploy capital.
Strategies like maximizing utilization, reusing, refurbishing, and repurposing already built space provide a cost-effective way to help decarbonize Canada’s buildings stock by extending the lifespan of existing buildings and avoiding the energy-intensive process of creating new materials. Deep retrofits – that involve upgrades to multiple building systems and equipment (such as replacing roofs; adding, upgrading, or rearranging windows; adding or increasing insulation; replacing or improving building envelope or cladding) – can achieve maximum energy savings and GHG emissions reductions.
Furthermore, climate resilience considerations – including locating, planning, designing, managing, adapting, operating and maintaining buildings infrastructure – and current and projected climate change impacts must be kept in mind.
Accelerated ambition and coordination is needed across all levels of government to ensure design and delivery of initiatives that work in concert towards the CGBS strategic priorities – both today and as we collectively continue to advance towards net-zero in 2050.