Ottawa’s energy-efficiency retrofit program is struggling to keep up with high demand from Canadians seeking reimbursements for home upgrades, as thousands of grant applications sit untouched in the queue and homeowners face months-long – or even years-long – wait-lists for securing the federally certified energy evaluations required under the program.

The Canada Greener Homes Grant has been popular ever since its inception. Within three days of its launch in May, more than 32,000 applications were submitted. By July 1, that number had grown to nearly 70,000.

The government has now received more than 180,000 applications to the program, which helps cover the costs of investments in energy-conserving improvements like electric heat pumps, new windows and doors, solar panels and better attic insulation. While program officers have managed to wade through tens of thousands of applications, they have yet to open roughly 2,500 of them.

As of Jan. 18, 1,227 homeowners had completed the entire retrofit, evaluation and application process. Only 223people had actually received their grants, for a total of $978,000 paid.

Expected to cost $2.6-billion over seven years, the program is intended to provide as many as 700,000 Canadians with up to $5,000 each for retrofits and up to $600 each for the costs of the energy evaluations, which must be conducted by federally registered advisers before and after the renovations.

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