WESTLOCK – The Town of Westlock has taken another step towards unveiling a “clean energy improvement program”, a coming initiative that will allow residents and business owners to borrow money from the municipality for things like solar panels and energy-efficient furnaces, then repay the cash via their property tax bills, similar to a local improvement levy.
At their March 28 meeting, town councillors unanimously passed second and third readings of the five-page Clean Energy Improvement Bylaw 2022-05, a document that received first reading back on Feb. 28 before undergoing a handful of revisions. The public hearing, also held March 28 on the bylaw, received no public submissions.
The bylaw sets the limits on the amount that can be borrowed — $3,000 to $50,000 for residential and a maximum of $500,000 for commercial — for things like interior and exterior lighting and lighting controls, high-efficiency furnaces, insulation upgrades and even solar arrays. The repayment timeline is 25 years, while the annual interest rate cannot exceed what banks are currently charging. Ultimately, the loan is added to the owner’s tax bill, meaning if they sell their home, what’s left owning remains with the property.
“The total repayment from year to year cannot exceed the value of your taxes, so if your tax bill is $3,000 your repayment can’t be more than that. That’s one of the caps that’s coming into play. I think I calculated that I pay $3,200 a year (in taxes) so the maximum I could get for a project was $42,000,” finance director Julia Seppola told councillors Feb. 28.
Once the program is up and running the town will start with a pool of $300,000, a figure Coun. Randy Wold said should allow for more than a dozen residents to participate — in discussions with other municipalities, he said the average loans are coming in at around $19,000.
“Having heard that it makes me feel better that we could have the potential of 15 different households using this program in the first year alone,” said Wold previously.
Although the bylaw is passed, residents shouldn’t expect the program to roll out immediately as CAO Simone Wiley said they will now join a “cohort” of other municipalities looking to take the next steps. As far as a timeline, the City of Leduc passed a similar bylaw last spring and have yet to start its program as there are “only a handful of municipalities in Alberta right now who are to the point of accepting applications.”
“It’s quite a process,” said Wiley March 28. “Passing the bylaw is one of the steps that needs to be done and puts us a little bit ahead of the game in not having to do the bylaw at the same time when we’re developing the program with the program advisors.”
The town will be applying for money under the Federation of Canadian Municipality’s Community Efficiency Financing Program, a process that Wiley said can be a “bit onerous and lengthy” but covers the administration fees that must be paid to the program advisors.
“So, it’s in our interests to go the FCM way, it just will take longer to get the program going,” said Wiley.
“If it takes a little longer, it’s not going to matter if we’re a little slower out of the gate. This is a long-term program,” added Coun. Curtis Snell.
