Strengths

Efficiency Manitoba innovation funding

In 2021, Efficiency Manitoba launched its Innovation Fund, which supports research and projects such as indoor agriculture in cold climates, ground-source heat pumps, drone-based air leakage assessments and pre-engineered insulation systems.

New Indigenous programs

Efficiency Manitoba created an Indigenous energy efficiency working group to design, deliver and implement new programs.

One of these new programs is the Indigenous Community Energy Efficiency Program, which hires First Nations advocates to identify energy savings and hiring opportunities in their communities.

Opportunities for improvement

High-performance building codes

The new version of the national model building codes include progressive performance tiers that lead to net-zero energy ready buildings.

Manitoba can expect help from an anticipated federal net-zero building code acceleration fund.

Fuel-switching policy

Programs that switch from fossil fuels to electricity (e.g., heat pumps) decrease Efficiency Manitoba’s claimed electricity savings, under existing rules.

This creates a disincentive and a lost opportunity to reduce emissions by using the province’s clean electricity.

The Efficiency Manitoba Act’s fuel-specific targets can be complemented with fuel-neutral targets and/or emission reduction objectives.