Community Energy Planning

How the Oakville community is working together to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Community Energy Strategy

In 2019, Oakville Town Council unanimously voted to declare a climate emergency. In doing so, they recognized the important role communities play in fulfilling Canada’s Paris Climate Agreement commitment. The town has since joined hundreds of communities across Canada to develop a community energy planning process. 

Oakville's Community Energy Strategy (pdf) directly supports Council’s climate emergency declaration by providing clear and achievable goals to significantly lower community greenhouse gas emissions and improve our overall energy efficiency while strengthening the local economy.

The Community Energy Strategy (CES) has three goals:

  1. Increase energy efficiency by 20 per cent by 2041
  2. Enable transition to a goal of carbon neutrality by reducing GHG emissions, by at least 50 per cent by 2041
  3. Return at least $7 billion in cumulative energy cost savings to the community by 2041

Council received an update on the Community Energy Strategy at the September 20, 2022, Council meeting. The update outlined some of the key energy projects being completed by the town. 

The next update to the Community Energy Strategy is planned for 2025. The strategy update is being led by Future Energy Oakville and is expected to be presented to Council by the end of 2025.

What community energy planning means for you

Community energy planning and implementation helps the town, residents and businesses work together to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions while strengthening the local economy and building an affordable and reliable energy future.

The ultimate goal is to help us as a community:

  • use energy more efficiently and reduce waste
  • reduce energy costs
  • reduce greenhouse gas emissions
  • create more opportunities to attract businesses and jobs
  • increase the security of our energy supply
  • enhance our resiliency to climate change

How much do we spend on energy in Oakville?

 

Per cent of money spent on energy

 

Home energy retrofits

The Town of Oakville and Oakville Hydro collaborated on a feasibility study to understand the potential for a home energy retrofit program for homeowners to improve their home’s energy efficiency and reduce energy costs. 

In March 2022, the town conducted a focus group and survey of Oakville homeowners to gather residents' input. 

In April 2023, a Council workshop was held to outline the study outcomes, provide updates on landscape changes and learnings from other existing programs, and propose a path forward for the town.

Learn more by visiting the Home Energy Retrofits page.

In 2020, the town approved a Community Energy Strategy (CES). 

  • The CES established community-wide targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50 per cent by 2041 and 80 per cent by 2050. 
  • The strategy identified that residential energy is responsible for about 33 per cent of the town’s total energy use and is the second largest source of the town’s GHG emissions at 27 per cent.

One of the priority projects of the CES is the development of a residential energy retrofit program. Retrofitting existing buildings represents a significant opportunity to reduce energy use and costs, and associated GHG emissions. 

Buildings (residential and commercial) can often account for over half of a municipality’s GHG emissions. In order to achieve GHG reduction targets in Oakville, we must address energy use within the existing building stock and find innovative approaches to finance retrofits. 

See the “Feasibility Study” tab below for more information on this project, the work completed in partnership with OEC to-date and next steps.

From March 7 to 27, 2022, the town invited owners of detached, semi-detached, and townhome properties in Oakville to take a home retrofit survey. In the survey, they were asked to share their input, past experiences and goals related to home energy. A two-hour focus group was also held on March 24, 2022. 

Here’s what we heard:

Highlights:

  • The top three reasons residents weren't investing in home energy retrofits were:
    1. High costs
    2. Difficulty finding a good contractor
    3. Lack of knowledge on the subject
  • The top four most important features of a potential financing product were identified as:
    1. Low interest rate
    2. Ability to pay off anytime
    3. Length of payback period
    4. Easy application process
  • Ninety-one per cent of respondents indicated a willingness to spend more on a home improvement, if an opportunity to upgrade the improvement meant realizing additional energy savings.
  • Twenty-six per cent of respondents expressed interest in an LIC-based home energy retrofit program.
  • Fifty-three per cent of respondents said they may be interested but would need more information.
  • Sixty-four per cent of respondents expressed interest in a program designed in a way that eliminated the need to source qualified contractors.

Since the study’s completion, there have been significant changes to the landscape including increased availability of programs and insights gained from other municipalities. Town staff and Oakville Enterprises Corporation (OEC) provided these updates along with the proposed path forward to Council at the workshop on April 4, 2023. 

Contact

communityenergy@oakville.ca.

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