Subsidies, a political tool?
- Marie Francis
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
There are some programs that can reduce the cost of construction or renovation.
Rénoclimat offers subsidies for insulation, weatherproofing, and door and window replacement, with an energy assessment included. For new construction, Novoclimat certifies homes built slightly above code requirements and provides up to $2,000 for a single-family home. Hydro-Québec's LogisVert program offers rebates for the installation of heat pumps and certain equipment, geothermal systems, solar panels, etc. Some insurers also offer discounts on mortgage or home insurance premiums for LEED or Novoclimat certified homes, and some municipalities offer property tax credits. While these amounts are rarely proportional to the actual costs of new construction or renovations in 2026, they are worth knowing about and taking advantage of.
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The issue:
The landscape of financial assistance programs for residential construction and renovation in Quebec is evolving, but the amounts remain far below the actual cost of construction. In a context where the price of new homes and renovations has skyrocketed in recent years, the available subsidies represent such a small fraction of the total budget that they rarely influence a decision to build better.
LogisVert, for example, pays around $600 for a small, efficient heat pump as a solution for a small, poorly insulated house, and up to $60,000 for an oversized geothermal system in a large, energy-inefficient home. The logic is not to reward performance, but to reduce the strain on the electrical grid.
The two federal programs that supported energy-efficient renovations, the Canada Green Home Grant and Loan, have been closed to new applications since October 2025. A new Rénoclimat-Adaptation component for climate resilience is announced in the 2026-2027 budget. We look forward to seeing the details…
As for programs dedicated to new, more energy-efficient construction, they come and go with the rhythm of elections, often renamed, always announced with great fanfare, with the same budgets that end up intact because bureaucracy costs more to navigate than it brings in to the clientele it targets, namely the large real estate developers.
Currently, there are no simple, direct, and meaningful incentives for building truly high-performance residential buildings in Quebec. For a small builder like us, who constructs a few houses a year with a tight-knit team, the situation is even more critical. These programs are simply not designed for our reality, and improving them doesn't seem to be a priority.
There is also a broader tension. The housing crisis is pushing us to build quickly and in large quantities, often without regard for quality. We therefore risk repeating on a massive scale mistakes that we will pay dearly for in twenty years: poorly constructed buildings, difficult to renovate, and a built heritage that crumbles before it has even been used. This trend will only accelerate the crisis.
What could change that is collective pressure. Like everything in politics, programs will follow demand. The more people ask the right questions and demand more from their elected officials, the more things will change!
Here are some links to help you in your grant search:
