Anxious homeowners were checking with their window installers Wednesday, after incoming premier Doug Ford announced he was cancelling the Green Ontario Fund.Jimm Fox, marketing director for Nordik Windows and other brands sold in the Toronto and Ottawa areas, said installers such as his company had received phone calls from people checking to see if they still qualified for up to $5,000 under the now-cancelled rebate program.The new Progressive Conservative government has set an Aug. 31 deadline for the installation of windows in order to qualify for the rebates, but some consumers will be left in the lurch. The government will honour rebate applications that have already been submitted and those filed by Sept. 30 on work done no later than Aug. 31, according to the program’s website.But the lead time for window installation tends to be 15 to 20 weeks, said Fox. If the government sticks to its Aug. 31 deadline, some customers who have planned for fall installation won’t qualify. “We’re doing our best to encourage the government to extend the deadline,” he said. “We’re also doing our best to manage installations within the stated time period. It’s causing a huge challenge for us.”The $377-million Green ON rebate fund was introduced by the Liberal government last year as a climate change initiative to encourage environmental building upgrades such as windows, thermostats, heat pumps and insulation. Ford announced Tuesday that the fund was being cancelled as part of the elimination of the cap-and-trade policy that was financing the program. The fund has been a boon to Ontario’s window and door business, which is worth about $1 billion annually, but it has caused an “artificial bubble” in that sector, said Fox. Consumers, who are prone to delay a costly renovation like replacement windows, saw the rebates as an incentive to get the work done. So window companies have been swamped with demand fro ...
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