The LiveSmart program not only includes energy audits of homes, but then helps fund improvements to those homes - doors, windows, insulation, more efficient furnaces etc
Both he majority of the products and the jobs are local - not simply creating a flood of cheap imports.
Surely a measly $60m can be found to continue this 'too popular' initiative?
Contacts to protest, complain, suggest different priorities etc:
HONOURABLE BLAIR LEKSTROM
MINISTER OF ENERGY, MINES AND PETROLEUM RESOURCES
PO BOX 9060 STN PROV GOVT
VICTORIA BC V8W 9E3
Telephone: 250 387-5896
Fax: 250 356-2965
Jake Jacobs Public Affairs Officer
email: Jake.Jacobs@gov.bc.ca
Telephone: 250 952-0628 Fax: 250 952-0627
Slimy 'target met' BC government press release here
From the Globe and Mail BC section
BRENNAN CLARKE
VICTORIA -- Special to The Globe and Mail Last updated on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009 03:29AM EDT
Companies specializing in green energy solutions are seeing red over the cancellation of LiveSmart BC, a move they say will hurt the province's burgeoning green industry sector and undermine the Campbell government's efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.
Cancelled without warning late last week, LiveSmart BC offered a range of cash incentives for homeowners who invest in energy-saving technology.
Among the hardest hit will be firms that make and install "Energy Star" windows, a rating that entitled homeowners to a $30-per-window rebate.
The demise of LiveSmart is part two of a double whammy for makers of eco-friendly products that will lose their provincial sales tax exemption when BC adopts the harmonized sales tax next July 1.
"It affects 100 per cent of our business. All we sell is Energy Star windows," said Mark Brandow, sales manager for Centra Windows, a $16-million company with outlets across southern B.C.
"All my second- and third-quarter promotions are geared toward the LiveSmart program. Our phones have been ringing off the hook with customers who have either just signed their contracts or were thinking of going ahead."
Companies that sell and install heat pumps, the cleanest and most efficient alternative to conventional (electric, oil and gas) heating systems, were shocked by the program's end.
Wendy Wilson-Storey of CoolFlame Home Heating in Nanaimo said LiveSmart offered rebates of up to $1,420 on the estimated $6,000 cost of replacing a conventional furnace with a heat pump.
"It's not good news. We've been swamped with work in the last couple of months, but after that runs out who knows how people will react?" Ms. Wilson-Storey said.
"[The rebate] was a great motivator for people to go green."
Ms. Wilson-Storey also spoke to the second half of the one-two punch, the new harmonized sales tax: "Right now you don't have to pay PST on heat pumps, so there's another 7 per cent when the HST kicks in."
Consulting firms offering home energy "audits" are also feeling the heat, said Peter Sundberg, executive director of City Green Solutions, a Victoria-based non-profit that promotes energy efficiency programs.
To qualify for energy-retrofit rebates, LiveSmart required homeowners to undergo a $300 initial assessment of their home's energy efficiency, $150 of which was reimbursed by the province.
Over the past year, City Green has been doing "500 to 600" energy audits a month. Mr. Sundberg, who has 22 employees, is anticipating a "25- to 50-per-cent" drop in those numbers.
"City Green is going to be hit hard, but we have other things going on so we will fare better than the others," Mr. Sundberg said. "Energy audits are about 60 per cent of what we do."
Energy and Mines Minister Blair Lekstrom said Friday thatLiveSmart B.C. was a "victim of its own success," devouring its $60-million funding allocation in just over 15 months, far faster than the government anticipated.
In that time, close to 40,000 British Columbians signed up for home energy audits, and 11,000 of those followed through with energy retrofits.
Homeowners who completed their initial audits before the close of business Aug. 15 remain eligible for the LiveSmart rebates.
Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources spokesman Jake Jacobs said the province is working on a "future version of this efficiency program," but added that details of those discussions are "unavailable."
Clay Martin, owner of CR Martin Heating in Langley expressed confidence the extra work the program has created will keep his company busy until the government comes up with a replacement.
Federal incentives such as a $150 rebate on follow-up energy audits and up to $500 for installing a heat pump are still available, he added.
In March, the federal government announced a 25-per-cent increase in grant values under its ecoEnergy Retrofit program.
Mr. Sundberg said LiveSmart's incentives were a crucial part of the government's promise to reduce greenhouse gases by 30 per cent over 10 years. "This program was the most cost-effective way for them to achieve their greenhouse-gas reduction targets," he said. "From the heating systems people to the windows guys ... these programs create community-level economic activity and have a huge impact on emissions."
and from the same day's Globe and Mail print vesion was this story about Canadian's desire for 'green' programs.
Julian Beltrame
Ottawa -- The Canadian Press Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009 08:47PM EDT
Canadians are telling governments not to let the recession become an excuse for easing up on efforts to protect the environment, a new opinion poll suggests.
The finding in The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey suggests that while voters are worried about the economy, they do not want governments to ease off on measures to protect the environment.
On the key question, 67 per cent said the environment should be just as much as priority for governments as tackling economic problems, with only 26 per cent saying it was a secondary concern.
The result was generally shared among Canadians, regardless of gender, annual salary, political affiliation or where they live. However, men, Conservative supporters and those in the West were most likely to say the economy is the top priority. Even among Tory supporters, 53 per cent felt the environment should not take a back seat to the economy.
Most respondents also felt governments are not doing enough on the environment, with 74 per cent saying governmental focus is not going far enough.
Harris-Decima vice president Jeff Walker said the results are somewhat surprising, since it is generally the case that other issues often go on the back burner in tough economic times. That doesn't appear to be the mood of Canadians now, even though more than 400,000 jobs have vanished since October and economists and politicians warn unemployment will likely increase in the next few months.
"In contrast to prevailing views that environmental efforts recede in a recession, Canadians ... overwhelmingly believe much more can and should be done," he said.
The survey of 1,000 people, conducted in the last week of July, is considered to be accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times in 20.
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