Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program agreements reach Quebec, BC, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador

How the program works

The short answer: Ottawa funds it, provinces and utilities deliver it, and eligible households pay nothing upfront.

CGHAP covers measures such as heat pumps, insulation and air sealing for low- and median-income homeowners and tenants. Rather than a single national portal, each province or utility partner runs its own delivery program under a bilateral agreement. That is why the measures, eligibility rules and contractor process differ from one province to the next.

The agreements, province by province

From the two federal releases:

Manitoba signed the first CGHAP agreement in September 2025, delivered by Efficiency Manitoba, according to our Manitoba page. Adding the June figures together, the four June agreements commit about $298 million in federal money; that total is our arithmetic, not a figure the government published.

What the releases do not say

Neither release gives a launch date for every new delivery stream. The Newfoundland and Labrador release, for example, does not say when upgrades will start. The Quebec delivery program's name was not stated in the backgrounder. Contractors should treat each provincial partner's own website as the authority on intake dates and installer requirements.

What it means for contractors (analysis)

This section is our analysis, not part of the federal releases.

This is work you get through a program, not through ads. No-cost retrofit programs usually route jobs through the delivery partner's own contractor list. If you want this work, the first step is getting on that list, not buying more clicks. Contact your province's delivery partner and ask how installers are selected.

Expect more homeowner questions than eligible homeowners. Headlines about "free heat pumps" bring calls from people who will not qualify. A short page that explains who is eligible, links the delivery partner, and offers your regular service for everyone else turns those calls into useful conversations. Our program pages service is designed for that.

Dual-fuel is now in a federal program. FortisBC's stream funds dual-fuel heating systems. Gas-side contractors in BC who have stayed away from heat pump marketing may find this a natural entry point.

Envelope work and HVAC sizing go together. Several streams combine insulation and air sealing with heat pumps. Contractors who coordinate with insulation firms, or who explain how envelope upgrades change the heat load, will be easier for program partners to work with.

A checklist for contractors in the five provinces

If you work in one of the provinces with a new agreement, these steps cost little and keep you ready:

1. Find the delivery partner named for your province in the table above and read its installer or contractor page.
2. Ask whether the stream uses a closed list of program contractors, an open application, or work through existing utility programs.
3. Confirm the licences, insurance and training the partner requires, and gather proof in one folder.
4. Prepare a one-page explainer for homeowners who call about "free heat pumps", with the eligibility rules in plain words and a link to the administrator.
5. Note the date you checked, and check again monthly; intake details were still unconfirmed for several streams when we wrote this.

Related coverage

Read our story on the separate National Heat Pump Rebate Program and the January 2026 Greener Homes progress figures. Province pages for British Columbia, Quebec and Nova Scotia list the other programs we verified.

HVACNews.ca is a newsroom and marketing service for HVAC companies, not an HVAC contractor. We summarise public announcements; confirm program details with the administrator before quoting them to customers.