Calling all contractors: City of Kingston offering free training

Ontario Construction News staff writer

The City of Kingston is offering local contractors access to free training on high performance homes and building science principles to support the launch of the Better Homes Kingston Program, a property loan program that will help owners of single-family homes complete energy-saving retrofits.

In addition, participating contractors will become eligible to access the “Better Homes Kingston Renovate Portal” where upcoming projects will be listed.

Launching in April, the program will provide interest-free loans, re-payable over a period of up to 20 years.

Building Knowledge Canada Inc. will provide training to contractors free of charge.

Contractors are invited to reserve their spot at an upcoming training session on Zoom. To register, click on the link for your preferred date:

March 16 – 8 to 11 a.m.

March 23 – 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.

In the coming months, additional courses will be added, focused on specialized renovations and trades.

“Home retrofits are an important climate action and just one more way the City of Kingston is demonstrating leadership on climate action,” said Julie Salter-Keane, manager of the climate leadership division.

“Not only is the program good for the local industry and homeowners, it’s also good for our environment.”

The course, focused on high performance homes and building sciences, will be led by Building Knowledge Canada Inc.

“After completing this course, participants will walk away knowing the key elements of a high performance home; the EnerGuide Rating System program; the science of air, heat and moisture flow and the materials and methods to help control each in a systematic way; imagine helping your clients make decisions that simultaneously improve the safety, health, comfort, durability and energy efficiency of their home,” said Building Knowledge Canada president, Gord Cooke.

Better Homes Kingston is a local improvement charge (LIC) financing program to encourage homeowners to undertake deep-energy retrofits.  Homeowners who participate in the program will qualify for up to $40,000 loans at 0 per cent interest, with the option for an initial 30 per cent upfront to pre-pay contractors for your services. This project is carried out with assistance from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund, an endowment created by the Government of Canada. Green Municipal Fund.

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