Funding Announced for Energy Efficiency Retrofits in Some Ontario Schools

Last month, the federal government announced that it will spend around $40 million to increase the energy efficiency of schools in Ontario. It is expected that this pool of money will be able to fund energy efficiency retrofit projects in more than 172 schools across the province – targeting energy conservation measures such as boiler, insulation and roof replacements.

In addition to the reduced energy consumption, costs and GHG emissions, the measures are expected to play some role in improving air quality and ventilation in schools, which should obviously be a top priority given what we have learned going through a pandemic. As the federal minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Jonathan Wilkinson stated,

“Each of the projects across the province will help schools save on energy costs and reduce their emissions, making learning environments cleaner and healthier for students and teachers alike”.

It should be noted that this funding will come from money collected from the federal carbon tax. Hopefully, we will see many more such federal funding for larger-scale energy efficiency projects in the future as well.

For more information about the official government announcement