Article from Volume 9, Issue Number 1, 2022
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The Green Condo Page - Winter 2022
By Alan Forbes | Other articles by Alan Forbes | Regular Column
Whether it improves the sustainability of your condo operations, reduces waste, increases energy efficiency, reduces water consumption or just beautifies the environment surrounding your property, we’d like to hear from you - just send us an email with a subject line of “CCI Green Condo Page”. We hope to hear from you soon. Please send any comments or suggestions to mailto:cci.mb.news@gmail.com.
Climate Change Explainer
Do you have trouble understanding some of the climate change terms or some of the evidence showing how human behaviours are influencing climate change. Here is a useful and easy to understand article titled Puzzled about Climate Change? https://climatechangeconnection.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Puzzled-by-Climate-Change-2018.pdf
Free Mini Recycling Bins for all Tenants
Property Managers and Condo Corporations can order free mini recycling bins for their unit owners, courtesy of Recycle Everywhere https://www.recycleeverywhere.ca/. Here is a link to the application form https://cbcra.in1touch.org/survey.html?surveyId=135.
Canada Greener Homes Grant
As mentioned in the fall newsletter, some condo corporations are eligible - bungalow, townhouse and low rise apartment.1 Once you apply you will receive an email similar to the one below
Dear homeowner,
Thank you for applying to Canada’s Greener Homes Grant.
Like you, many Canadians are interested in making their homes more energy efficient. In fact, we’ve received over 115,000 applications to date! We don’t want you to think we’ve forgotten you as we process applications and we thank for your patience.
Meanwhile, here is a reminder of what comes next:
- Once the program reviews your application, you’ll get an email that welcomes you into the program. It’s important to wait for this email before booking a pre-retrofit EnerGuide evaluation. These evaluations are a mandatory step to be reimbursed through the grant. In the meantime, we might reach out for more information about your home’s eligibility. We look forward to being in touch.
- Once approved, your chosen service organization will reach out to book a pre-retrofit EnerGuide evaluation. They’ll send an energy advisor to evaluate your home and recommend improvements to its energy efficiency and resiliency, and on solar retrofits. These organizations are also working hard to meet the program’s high demand, so thank you for understanding if there’s a delay hearing back from them. Please keep in mind that you will need to pay for the audit upfront. Keep the receipt, as you will be reimbursed up to $600 total for both the pre-retrofit and post-retrofit evaluations if you proceed with at least one eligible and recommended retrofit.
- Complete your home retrofits and keep the receipts. Following the energy advisor’s recommendations, you can decide which of the eligible retrofits from the Renovation Upgrade Report you’d like to complete.
- Book a post-retrofit EnerGuide evaluation through your service organization. The energy advisor will reassess your home and identify the impacts of your retrofits.
- Receive a reimbursement for eligible expenses. Upload the receipts to your Greener Homes account. Once the total amount for the grant is confirmed, the program will send you a cheque.
If your situation has changed and you no longer wish to participate in the program, let us know. You can always choose to reapply at a later date.
Thanks again for your patience and support.
Sincerely,
The Canada Greener Homes Grant team
The program is proving to be popular. To give you an idea of the timeline, the author applied October 16th, received the above email November 8th and then received the welcoming email in step 1 above on December 8th. For more information on the program you can check out the Canada Greener Homes Grant video: https://youtu.be/nCGmMG76PNQ.
Alan Forbes
Chair, CCI Communications Committee
1 Condominium News and Views - Fall 2021 https://cci-manitoba.ca/sites/default/uploads/files/CCI-MB-Fall-Newsletter-2021-FINAL.pdf
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Vol. 9, Issue 1, January 2022
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