We support the introduction of Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) financing in Ontario. C-PACE is a proven tool to drive commercial building retrofit activity while supporting local jobs and communities. By connecting private capital with businesses, C-PACE supports building-level energy savings while creating capacity to unlock a self-sustaining retrofit market. Ontario has an opportunity to implement a C-PACE framework that grows the economy, saves energy, and puts money back in the pocket of business owners.
Key recommendations
- Enable municipalities to collect agreed-upon loan payments on behalf of C-PACE lenders through the municipal property tax system, with these amounts secured through a special lien.
- Require municipalities that opt into C-PACE participation via municipal bylaw to work with a centralized third-party administrator designated by the province. This model ensures a consistent participant experience, lowers barriers to participation for municipalities, creates economies of scale, and reduces duplication across delivery partners.
- Clearly define the roles of the province, municipalities, and the third-party administrator. The province should introduce the framework and select the administrator; municipalities should introduce a C-PACE bylaw and process loan payments through the property tax system; the administrator should be responsible for program design and delivery, participant communications, and facilitating financing and lending agreements.
- Provide flexibility for municipalities to participate in lending, within existing legislative parameters, while not requiring municipalities to become lenders.
- Require arrangements between C-PACE lenders and property owners to be managed through the program administrator and require lenders to be pre-qualified. All lenders within a particular jurisdiction should offer consistent terms, and the framework should authorize both public and private sources of funding.
- Focus eligibility on retrofit projects in commercial, industrial, multi-residential, manufacturing, hotel, and retail buildings. Most new construction projects should not be eligible for C-PACE financing.
- Support a broad range of eligible project types, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, water conservation, fuel-switching upgrades, advanced controls, solar modules with battery storage, geothermal systems, electrical infrastructure, and resilience measures such as flood protection.
- Apply a special lien to the property and recover payments through the existing municipal property tax system, providing a clear mechanism to enforce repayment through the standard municipal tax delinquency process.
Related resources
Article: How Ontario can make C-PACE work for building owners and municipalities
