After raising an incredible fuss about the need to install so-called heat pumps in homes across the country, heat pumps for heating, declared almost a panacea for saving the climate, the Liberal government has suddenly stopped funding this program.

The reason cited is the depletion of the Greener Home fund, which was created in 2021 for a period of seven years. In Ontario, for example, those wishing to install a pump could receive $5,000 from the government.

After more than 165,000 homeowners applied for grants from this fund, Ottawa announced that it would stop accepting them, starting February 19 of this year. It is not yet known whether this has anything to do with the corruption scandal at the federal Green Initiatives Fund, which generously gave money to itself, but it is clear that the funds have disappeared somewhere.

“This could hurt a lot of people in our industry,” said Charlene Dunn, who owns a pump installation company in St. John, the capital of Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.). “We have hired a lot of new people in our business alone because there is a high demand for people.”

Dunn is holding out hope, counting on the rumors of a new federal program to replace the discontinued one.

Anastasia Chupina