Federal Program Installed 43 Heat Pumps Since 2023 Launch: Department

Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Sept. 21, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Patrick Doyle)

The federal government’s program to replace heating oil with heat pumps has delivered 43 new installations since it launched in early 2023, according to a Natural Resources Canada estimate obtained by The Epoch Times.

The information was provided by the department in an Inquiry of Ministry tabled on Nov. 3, a few days after the Liberal government said it was bolstering the program.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Oct. 26 he was pausing the carbon tax on heating oil for three years and increasing the subsidy from $10,000 to $15,000 for homeowners switching from oil to a heat pump.

“This would make the average heat pump free for lower income households as we continue to minimize upfront costs and make federal programs even easier to access for all households,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.

The $250-million Oil to Heat Pump Affordability (OHPA) program began taking applications in early 2023, but there’s been modest uptake compared to the number of homes using heating oil.

The government says roughly 1.1 million residences in Canada use home heating oil to keep warm during the colder months.

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) says up to 9,000 homeowners have applied for OHPA-related funding.

The department was responding to an order paper from Conservative MP Warren Steinley, who asked for a breakdown of the number of applications received and granted, and for the number of heat pumps installed through the program.

A table provided by the department containing data from the national NRCan portal, but lacking data from the co-delivery portion of the program with Atlantic provinces, shows 971 applications were received and 522 were granted.

Inquiry of Ministry on the Oil to Heat Pump Affordability Program. (Screenshot)

Out of the granted applications, 43 heat pumps were installed, including 13 in Quebec, 13 in Ontario, and 10 in British Columbia. The program is primarily aimed at lower and middle income households.

NRCan says the majority of rejected applications were due to household income being over the program’s threshold. The income threshold varies based on province and household size.

As winter approaches, home heating has turned into a hot political issue. The decision of the Liberal government to pause the carbon tax on heating oil came after pressure from Liberal MPs representing Atlantic ridings, where this form of heating is more widely used.

A Conservative motion to extend the exemption to all forms of heating was defeated in the House of Commons on Nov. 6, with the Bloc Québécois siding with the Liberals.

The NDP, which has a supply-and-confidence agreement to keep the minority Liberals in power until 2025 in exchange of social programs investments, sided with the Tories in a rare move.

NDP MP Taylor Bachrach tabled a related motion of his own in the House on Nov. 7. It calls for the lifting of the GST on all forms of home heating and the delivery of free heat pumps to low-income and middle-class Canadians.

He says these changes should be financed by putting a tax on “excess profits of big oil and gas corporations.”