A program by the City of Calgary to offer homeowners a rebate to install impact-resistant roofing after a hailstorm in June 2020 is coming to an end.
Late Tuesday, the city council voted against recommendations from the committee that the program be expanded so that remaining applications can be considered for homeowners who have replaced their roofs. them due to damage from hailstorms in 2020 and 2021.
Those revised recommendations from Ward 5 councilor Raj Dhaliwal at the city’s community development commission asked the government to determine the amount needed to rebate remaining homeowners and find that funding. .
Those recommendations were defeated in a vote of six to nine, with only Mayor Jyoti Gondek and councilmembers Dhaliwal, Gian-Carlo Carra, Evan Spencer, Kourtney Penner and Richard Pootmans voting in favor.
The program offers $3,000 rebates to homeowners who suffered hail damage and have replaced their roofs with certified Class 4 impact resistant materials.
Homeowners must also employ a contractor who is a member of a roofing association and must be up to date on their property taxes.
To date, $3.35 million in refunds have been awarded to 1,073 homes across the city, according to a city report.
There is also another $1 million set aside for 308 pre-approved roof replacement applications.
The city government’s initial recommendation was to end the program “when existing funding has been exhausted.”
“I believe we have been very clear in our message that this is a first come, first served facility,” Kris Dietrich with city building services told the council. “It was much more successful than we imagined.”
The program was oversubscribed earlier this year, and the city was forced to create a waiting list on February 18. The city government told the council that officials make sure waitlist registrants know The program is about to run out of funding.
The city government said the discounts were given in every ward across the city.
Ward 3 Councilor Jasmine Mian said she initially wanted to see the program renewed, but felt the extension would create new expectations for homeowners with pending applications.
“There was a perception on the committee that the program was to help a boy,” Mian told the council.
“The challenge with this program is that resilient roofing materials, even at a discount, are more expensive than other materials, which means that if you really make decisions about the benefits profit – as people who don’t” have no money doing – this won’t help you. “
Dietrich told the council that the city only requires proof of hail damage from the 2020 hailstorm in order for homeowners to receive a rebate during the initial phase of the scheme.
“When we opened the program in January of this year to more people than those affected in 2020, we were no longer asking for any information regarding hail damage,” Dietrich said.
Dietrich told the council that there are 1,100 people on the waiting list and, if the extension is approved, the city will need to contact about 400 individual homeowners and request information “that was not originally a request.” program requirements”.
Dietrich said the city will have to go back to an original first-come, first-served approach and manually select homeowners out of that rest of the pool.
Penner, representing Ward 11, said she was concerned some of the affected homeowners would be left out if the program was not extended.
“Customers who may have been affected by the hail need time to save money to replace their roofs,” she said.
“This is a highly unequal program and I wish it was something that happened when it was first designed. I think we have a chance to correct this here. “
It is not yet clear how much money is left to fund the program.
The city government says it is working to change building codes to require sustainable building materials, but the next review of the province’s building codes is not until 2026.
—With files from Adam Toy, Global News
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