Mayor Dan Curtis has urged the Yukon government to delay the decision to force municipalities to administer a new energy efficiency program.

Earlier this month, Curtis sent a letter to Community Services Minister Richard Mostyn. The letter asks him to defer the legislative amendments required to transfer administration of the program until they can explore alternate delivery options.

The government is planning to implement a Better Buildings Program. It will provide low-interest loans to homeowners and businesses for improving the energy efficiency of their homes and buildings.

The intent is to have the municipalities administer the program in the same way they administer the rural water well program.

Curtis, however, says with every additional administrative duty comes an additional cost – and there’s been no information about it and how the government will assist municipalities with that additional cost.

“... A program that is expected to have a broad appeal not only to residents but also to businesses is expected to increase the burden on front-line staff tremendously,” says the Oct. 6 letter from Curtis to Mostyn.

“The volume of loan questions, payment option queries, and potential multi-year default actions are anticipated to exceed existing staff capabilities.”

While the City of Whitehorse is in favour of the programs, “we do not support the downloaded burden to municipalities,” says the letter.

To facilitate the transfer of administrative responsibility, the government announced Oct.14 it will be amending the Municipal Act and the Assessment and Taxation Act.

Mostyn introduced the amendments to the legislature last week. They were given first reading, but the second and third readings have not been scheduled so far.

In an interview with the Star this week, the minister noted the program was first announced in the 2019 budget address. He said he’s been in communication directly with the municipalities to talk about the program.

Mostyn said he spoke about it at the annual general meeting of the Association of Yukon Communities.

“When I got the letter, I was a bit surprised,” he said.

The government, he said, will provide funding to cover the additional administrative costs – though the level of funding is a matter to be negotiated.

The Star has learned the administrative costs will be paid by residents in the city who enroll in the program, but there will be no administrative fee for property owners outside the municipal boundaries.

Mostyn said the intent of the program is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to which home heating is a large contributor.

Both the government and the city have declared climate emergencies, he pointed out.

“We are putting into place a program that will get our emissions down,” he said.

The interest on the loans will be set at 0.25 per cent, which Mostyn described as the lowest rate in the country.

He said his department and the Energy Solutions Centre are doing the heavy lifting to set up the program and to make it as easy as possible for the city to administer.

Mayor Curtis, however, remains disappointed that Mostyn has opted to go ahead with the transfer of administrative responsibility without any meaningful consultation with the municipalities.

The timing of the announcement came just two weeks before Thursday’s municipal election, when councils were focused on the election and the worldwide pandemic, Curtis pointed out.

He said there will be no time for the newly elected councils to digest and comment on what is being proposed by Mostyn.

Curtis said there has been virtually no dialogue.

Nobody has given any assurance the city will not face additional financial burdens, he noted.

A number of councillors have also expressed their concern with Mostyn’s announcement, saying there was no consultation.

Coun. Dan Boyd told his colleagues at a council meeting earlier this month he understood there would be more dialogue before there was any movement on the proposal.

“I was surprised, quite surprised,” Boyd said of learning about Mostyn’s intention to go ahead with the transfer of administrative responsibility.

As a former employee of the Yukon Housing Corp., Boyd said, he knows Yukon Housing had a difficult time administering the home repair program it offered over 25 or 30 years.

He said he believed the program was aimed at the commercial and industrial sectors, but has since learned it will be available for all property owners.

Coun. Jocelyn Curteanu expressed similar concerns, as did Coun. Samson Hartland.

Curteanu told her colleagues she supports the energy efficiency program initiative but is also concerned about the impact the additional administrative duties will have on the city.

The last things she wants, she said, is for residents thinking the city is resisting the program “because that is definitely not the truth.”

Curtis wrote in his letter that repayment of the retrofit loan could present an additional burden on residents who take down the program.

As it is, he noted in his letter, the government is proposing to collect the payments at the same time property taxes are paid annually to the municipalities by July 2, for many years to come.

For instance, take a property owner who pays property taxes in one lump to the city every year.

Mostyn is proposing the loan repayment be made annually at the same time.

That means property owners would have to come up with their taxes and the loan repayment at the same time – perhaps an additional $3,000 annually, depending on the size of the loan.

Under the proposal, the administrative fee inside municipalities will be paid by property owners. But there will be no administrative fee for property owners outside municipalities.