One can see the logic of giving away and installing 100,000 smart thermostats across the province, an initiative Environment and Climate Change Minister Chris Ballard recently announced along with the unveiling of a new provincial agency, the Green Ontario Fund.

Homeowners who sign up for the offer also get a free energy audit, part of a broader effort to reduce the carbon footprint of Ontario’s building stock.

As a first step, the campaign is an attention getter. Everyone likes free stuff, especially if what you’re getting is a cool piece of iPhone-esque gadgetry that will help you save money in the long run. Smart thermostats help homeowners use the least amount of energy to achieve just the right amount of comfort.

This is core to the agency’s mandate. Using $377 million raised through the province’s carbon cap-and-trade program, the fund was created to help home and business owners get easier access to GHG-reducing technologies by aggregating information, incentives and low-cost financing programs under one roof (found online at GreenOn.ca).

If we’ve learned anything from the record-breaking hurricanes, wildfires and temperatures witnessed this summer, it’s that we need to double down on climate action. But as the agency embarks on this important mission, it’s worth reminding ourselves that rebates and other incentives alone won’t get us to where we need to be. We have to be more creative than that. Read more…