The energy team of Ecotrust Canada will be visiting Quadra and Cortes Islands next week. They are part of a registered charity which works primarily in rural and remote areas and helps guide people through the process of doing energy retrofits, installing heat pumps, new windows and solar panels. They will be giving free workshops at 2:00 and 6:30 in the Quadra Community Centre on Monday, February 17 and at the same times in Mansons Hall on Tuesday, February 18, 2025.
“The upcoming workshops are to introduce residents to our Home Energy Savings Program. We’re offering a one on one support service, often called a concierge service. So once you register for our program, you’ll get an email from me asking very basic information about your home, like the age of your home, the heating system you have etc. After that, you will receive a phone call from me and we’ll go through more questions about your home. You explain what your desires are, what challenges you’re experiencing around your energy bill, and then I can help guide you toward the right rebates and the right renovations, or retrofits, so that you can achieve that goal,” explained Michael Anthony Lutfy, the program manager for our area.
“We support households from the beginning of the process all the way to the very end when it comes to selecting contractors, following through with the rebates, ensuring that they received what was expected from the contractor and we do financial planning, reminders, everything and anything a household needs to complete the process.”
Cortes Currents: Are you selling anything?
Michael Anthony Lutfy: “We do not sell anything. Our objective is just to ensure that people are making an informed decision. I do not receive commission. I do not receive any form of financial compensation from contractors and we do not provide leads to contractors either. We are working for the households. While we help connect you with the right contractors, because there is eligibility requirements around the rebate system with which contractors you’re allowed to use, we’re not selling your information or giving any of your private information to these contractors either.”
“Our organization has five different teams, and those are climate, fisheries, food systems, Indigenous homelands, and energy, the team I’m on. We’re funded through just regular individuals that are providing a donation. We have larger funders as well. We also apply for grants through the federal government, the provincial system, and each team is doing those on their own.”
“In the case of the energy team, for example, because we are an advocacy group and we talk with the provincial government all the time to try to influence policy, we don’t accept or receive funds at the provincial level for any of the programs or work we do on the energy team. Because then we wouldn’t be able to be an advocate for people. The Home Energy Savings Program specifically is funded in large part through a grant we received from National Resources Canada to promote sustainable energy systems and clean energy.”
“The list of retrofits that we often recommend are the ones that have the largest impact on your energy bill and have the largest rebate for them. Heat pump and insulation are the ones where you see the highest return on investment, or the largest drop in your energy bill. If you have single pane windows upgrading them to any type of window will bring huge gains in efficiency and in energy savings, but currently there is a supply and demand problem around the windows that are required to meet the eligibility of the rebates. In the North Island, for example, we’ve had success with getting heat pumps for most people on our program and a lot of the people on our program have the insulation that they need.”
Cortes Currents: So you keep track of them as the updates are made, even though it’s through a third party contractor?
Michael Anthony Lutfy: “A huge part of the service we’re offering is to be that middle person. We’re not liable for your project. We don’t have the insurance to be your general contractor, but once I’ve had that ‘one on one’ call with you, I have notes in my file, along with the questionnaire that participants have filled out, and I’ve guided them toward the appropriate contractors that I know are eligible, because a requirement of the CleanBC rebates is they must be an eligible registered contractor. In the North Island in general, that is a pretty small pool of contractors and when you consider the ones that are willing to travel to areas, like Cortes, for example, the pool of contractors shrinks even greater.”
“So a lot of what we’re doing is coordinating with all the households in our program and then turning around and coordinating with a small handful of contractors willing to travel. We are that middle person providing residents some buying power so that we can get those contractors out there to give some free quotes.”
Cortes Currents: Are there any contractors on Cortes or Quadra that do this kind of work.
Michael Anthony Lutfy: “To my knowledge there are no contractors registered with the province on Quadra or Cortes. We definitely always want to promote the local economy when possible. So, if there are contractors on Quadra or Cortes that want to get involved with the provincial rebates, I strongly encourage you to reach out to me. There’s a third party organization called the Home Performance Stakeholder Council. They are the industry body that manages the registered contractors for the province.”
“There are some minimum requirements. You need insurance and a business license, and then you have to register with this third party organization to prove you’re able to, for example, properly install windows or properly install insulation, or if there’s a heat pump contractor that as well.”
“There’s definitely no registered contractors installing windows currently in the North Island. So, if there’s any carpenters or anybody out there that has experience installing windows, I strongly encourage them to contact me. Make sure you have insurance, make sure you have a business license and we’d love to get you registered and be working with you.”
Cortes Currents: (As I was getting this ready for publication, I realized we did not talk about solar companies.)
Do you have heat pump companies registered in Campbell River?
Michael Anthony Lutfy: “In Campbell River, there are a lot. They’re registered with that third party organization and on CleanBC’s list.”
“So to clarify, we don’t hire the contractor for people. We always tell people, this is the list of available contractors, and then we can sometimes Narrow that list down based on ”these are the ones that we know regularly visit your area. These are the ones that regularly provide good service. ‘ We’re able to sometimes mediate those bookings and the logistics. We’re also providing that service to the contractors . We tell them like, ‘look, there’s 10 households ready. What week can you come out there?’ I am also providing that service to the contractors, that’s a big part of what they get out of this.”
“One thing people should be aware of is the CleanBC rebates are also open to tenants. So if you’re a renter and you have your own BC hydro account you are eligible to apply for these rebates. If you’re paying your own heating bill, then you are entitled to get a heat pump. If you’re income qualified, often free. Same thing with the installation. The landlord is required to sign a contract with the province saying they will not evict you after you’ve helped the landlord get a heat pump for their home. If you’re a tenant and you don’t have a BC Hydro account in your name, I strongly encourage you to talk to your landlord if you’re interested in getting a heat pump or insulation for your space, and then you’d be able to apply for the rebates as well.”
“We’re happy to talk with landlords, we’re very eager to assist them.”
“Any organizations currently working with vulnerable populations or low income households, we encourage you to reach out to me because those are definitely the people that would benefit most from our program.”
Cortes Currents: Tell me a little bit about the rebates that are available.
Michael Anthony Lutfy: “CleanBC has two rebate streams. There’s one that they call the Energy Savings Program, which is for income qualified households. They have a table in which you verify the number of people in the household, and then you compare that against the total income, and that’s how they determine who is income qualified. The other stream is the Better Homes Renovation Program, which is for households that aren’t income qualified.”
“The income qualified one, the energy savings program, is somewhat unfortunately named. We named ourselves the Home Energy Savings Program when we launched last year, and then CleanBC renamed their program last June after our program already existed. So we’re the Home Energy Savings Program, and they’re the Better Homes Energy Savings Program. We did not do that on purpose.”
“Their Energy Savings Program is their income qualified stream, and they pay up front, which overcomes a huge barrier for many households. When you do find a contractor who is eligible to provide the rebate service, they pay the contractor directly. You would only have to pay (your portion) after the installation is done. With the previous rebates you’d have to come up with the money up front, which is obviously incredibly challenging, especially when we’re talking about heat pumps that can sometimes be $10,000 or $15, 000. To come up with that money first and then get refunded was a huge barrier for households.”
“The current income qualified rebates go up to $44,900. So that’s the maximum amount of rebate each household will get, and it’s split into multiple categories.”
“So, for example, some households can be eligible for up to $16,000. For some households It can be a completely free heat pump. When I have my one on one phone call with people who register, I can help explain the difference between a centrally ducted heat pump or a mini split which have the air handlers exposed.”
“The other rebates are also covering insulation. For example, income qualified households can get up to $5, 500 to upgrade their insulation. Which could mean insulating the underside of a manufactured home or insulating the walls of a crawl space or basement. If someone is getting only their attic upgraded, or maybe only their basement or underside of their home ( like if your home is on a pier and beam foundation or up on cinder blocks). Getting the bottom side of your home insulated at $5,500 can often cover the entire cost.”
“There’s also window rebates for up to $9,500. That one’s a little bit trickier because contractor availability is a huge hurdle. Then there are some other ones like $800 toward health and safety, which includes removing old moldy insulation. There’s $1,600 toward ventilation, which can go for bathroom fans or heat recovery ventilator. But the bathroom fan is much more affordable and included in that rebate.”
“Currently, BC Hydro is offering rebates around solar panels to grid tied households, $5,000 for batteries and $5,000 toward the solar array system. The total solar array system may still cost households $25,000 to $30,000. The rebate would cover up to $10,000 of that, but BC Hydro is changing their buyback rate. The buyback rate hasn’t been determined yet, but it’s going to be much lower than it was in previous years and because it’s lower, they’re giving that upfront grant instead.”
Cortes Currents: Tell me a little bit about the origins of Ecotrust. How did it come into being?
Michael Anthony Lutfy: “I might not be the best person to give the history of Ecotrust Canada. It’s been around for almost 30 years now. At one point we had a relation with Ecotrust, which is in the United States. We’ve branched out and become our own organization in the last 15- 20 years.”
“What we’ve been able to accomplish has always obviously been tied to the political system and the funds available, because we’re a registered charity.”
“For the last five years the energy team, which is the team I’m on, has been heavily focused on retrofitting, which is the process of taking existing housing stock and improving it through insulation, windows, modern heating systems such as heat pumps.”
“We’ve been working a lot with First Nation communities. That’s how we primarily got started , at least on the energy side of things. Since then we’ve delivered other programs, done other research and that’s what led to the home energy savings program that I now run. We still have our Community Energy Project, which is what we call the work we do with First Nations.”
Cortes Currents: How did you get involved yourself?
Michael Anthony Lutfy: “I got super lucky. I applied for the job and I got it. I guess that’s the best way to put it. I’ve been very interested in climate action and participating in climate advocacy.”
“My first career was actually as a criminologist in Ottawa and I somewhat unceremoniously left that to move to Vancouver Island a little over 10 years ago. At the time I was working in organic farming and I had my own little organic farm. I didn’t realize, when I moved out here, that you need to be a millionaire to buy a farm in B. C. So then I did a bit of carpentry, looked into energy advising. I got less involved in the food system side of climate action and more so in housing. When Ecotrust Canada posted this position, I was super lucky to receive it.”
Cortes Currents: When was this?
Michael Anthony Lutfy: “I started working full time with Ecotrust in November of 2023. So I’ve been working there for a year and a half almost.”
Cortes Currents: Geographically speaking, where have you been working prior to this?
Michael Anthony Lutfy: “Our energy team as a whole has been working primarily throughout coastal BC, including Vancouver Island. The Home Energy Savings Program, when we launched in March 2024, we launched in the North Vancouver Island: so the Mount Waddington Regional District, including Malcolm Island and Cormorant Island. We also are offering the program in Prince Rupert. We have an Ecotrust office there. Based on our current capacity, in terms of how many registrations we’ve had and how well the program is running, we have now been able to expand to offer it to Quadra and Cortes, Denman and Hornby Island, (which is awesome because I live on Denman), and also qathet Regional District.”
Cortes Currents: Do you want to talk about that particular tour that you’re doing? Where are you going and when? By the way, Quadra, Cortes, and qathet are all in our listening area.
Michael Anthony Lutfy: “I get Cortes Radio in my car on Denman.”
“The first two launch events, which we call workshops are going to be in Quadra, at the Community Hall, then the next day, February 18th, I’m going to visit Cortes. Again, we’re offering 2 sessions: a 2:00 PM session and a 6:30 session because we’re hoping for the largest attendance of everybody that would benefit from the program.”
Then we’re having the event on Hornby on February 22nd, and then on Denman, we’re having it on February 25th. All these are at the community halls, which is amazing with these small islands is everybody has a community hall that I’m able to travel to. In qathet, we haven’t launched yet. We’re actually going to partner with the city of Powell River for our launch event, and we’re hoping for it to be in mid to late March.
Links of Interest:
- Ecotrust Canada
- CleanBC Better Homes and Home Renovation Rebate Program
- Home Performance Stakeholder Council
All photos courtesy Ecotrust Canada
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