Multires program

Retrofit program to decarbonize Multi-Unit Residential Buildings in the municipalities of Greater Montreal

The current rate of decarbonisation in the buildings sector in Greater Montreal is insufficient to meet our climate goals. To address this, both the City of Montreal and the Province of Quebec have started to introduce regulations that will make it illegal for building owners to use fossil fuels to heat their buildings. The focus is initially on removing heating oil from buildings, but natural gas will also be targeted in the future as part of general mandate to decarbonize the building sector. 

With these expected regulations, the Fonds Climat Grand Montréal (FCGM) and its partner Efficiency Capital (EC), will be launching a fully funded turnkey retrofit program to decarbonize Multi-Unit Residential Buildings (MURBS) in the 82 municipalities of Greater Montreal and is seeking interested building owners to participate in co-creating the program and include their buildings for retrofit as ‘pilots projects’ leading up to the formal launch of program.

MURB Decarbonization Program

The pilot projects will answer several research questions that will inform the final design of the program. These are outlined in the Addendum. For the final program, the key elements will include:

  • No upfront capital needed from the building owner
    • Low-interest leases/loans with low-cost capital.
  • Turnkey project implementation that includes:
    • Engineering and business case analysis of the technical opportunities for each building – heating system replacement, windows, ventilation, weatherproofing, etc.
    • Incentives management – applications to all utility and government incentive programs
    • Procurement and construction management to complete the project (optional)
    • 3rd-party certification that the retrofit was completed to international best practices.
  • Integration with current bank mortgage opportunities
    • Ability to roll the leases/loans into current mortgage financing/refinancing offerings, such as MLI Select

Sign Up to Participate!

Benefits to Pilot Project Participation

  • Energy audit detailing all options for improving the thermal comfort in the building
  • New heating and cooling systems with no upfront cost
  • Immediate savings on energy bills and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
  • Up to $10,000 in cash incentives
  • Public profile of climate leadership for apartment owners in Montreal

Is your Property Eligible to be a pilot?

To be eligible for the program, buildings need to:

  • Have between 6 to 50 residential units
  • Be located within one of the 82 municipalities belonging to the Montreal Metropolitan Community
  • Have central oil heating or natural gas as their primary source of space heating. Buildings that are already primarily heated electrically are not eligible in this first phase
  • Be owned by an individual or business. Condominium corporations are not eligible at this stage

Timeline & Commitment Required

The timeline to start and complete the pilots will be approximately four months. The steps in the process will include:

  • Step 1 – Confirmation of Eligibility
    • Technical requirements – 12 months of utility bills, site visit
    • Credit evaluation – 2 years of financial statements for the building
    • Commercial mortgage evaluation and lender discussions (optional) 
  • Step 2 – Retrofit Proposal & Contract 
    • Energy design / balance, proposal for retrofit measures, loan amount, incentive sharing and client business case
    • Contract signing to accept the loan and complete the retrofit
  • Step 3 – Procurement & Installation 
    • Turnkey delivery, or working through clients’ contractors to complete the work (with preconditions and requirements)
    • Use suppliers pre-qualified through the programme 
  • Step 4 – Verification & Certification

Sign Up to Participate!

 

Contact our implementing partner at EcoHabitation to understand if you are eligible to participate:

Mathieu Gillet, EcoHabitation

6001, rue St-Hubert | Montréal, QC | H2S 2L8

mgillet@ecohabitation.com 

Tel. (514) 813-7524

 

For more information :

Ted Kantrowitz, Greater Montréal Climate Fund

1095, rue St-Alexandre | Montréal, QC | H2Z 1P8

tkantrowitz@fondsclimat.com 

Tel. (514) 587-4844

 

About Us

FCGM

FCGM was created as part the of the Federal Government’s Low Carbon Cities Initiative, which created facilitator organizations across Canada to accelerate net-zero adoption in our largest municipalities. The goal of FCGM is to incite, catalyze, and organize financial sector actors, including private capital, to transform markets in favour of decarbonisation, in the 82 municipalities of the Greater Montreal region. FCGM aims to play the role of convener, facilitator, investor, co-developer and funder of decarbonization initiatives and programs.

Efficiency Capital 

EC is a developer, implementer, and funder of net-zero projects. EC was incubated by The Atmospheric Fund (TAF) – a regional not-for-profit climate agency in Toronto – with the goal of transforming the market to increase the flow of 3rd party capital into such projects.  EC delivers fully funded turnkey retrofits and is paid back over time based on the performance of those retrofits. EC works with a variety of engineers and contractors, as well as various sources of capital to deliver these projects.  Through its asset management platform, EC has secured $50M in low-cost funding from the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) for EC to deploy into low-carbon building retrofits for all types of private sector buildings across Canada. 

Écohabitation

Écohabitation is a non-profit organization in Quebec that facilitates the emergence of healthy, resource- and energy-efficient, sustainable, affordable housing accessible to all. It achieves its mission through promotion, awareness, training and coaching activities with the general public, housing sector stakeholders and political decision makers.

Greater Montréal Climate Fund is the Montréal partner of Low Carbon Cities Canada (LC3), a nationswide initiative led by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and financed by the Governement of Canada.