Sharing the Warmth in Saskatchewan

Reg Forbes, an Interior Architecture Professor at the Kelsey SIAST campus in Moose Jaw, was always looking for new ways to give his students hands-on experience and teach them about community involvement. Bruce Mackenzie of the Salvation Army knew that energy retrofits were a great way for households to save money, but also recognized that the people who would benefit the most from home energy savings often did not have the financial means to take them on. When these two simple thoughts came together, Reg came up with a unique idea. His students could learn all about home energy efficiency while helping low income households save a little money at the same time.

In the forthcoming weeks, Reg approached SaskEnergy to help develop a program, and thus, the SaskEnergy Share the Warmth™ Home Energy Efficiency Project was born. With funding from SaskEnergy and the Office of Energy Conservation, and with SIAST, the Salvation Army, the Moose Jaw Fire Department and Fire Fighters Union, and the Moose Jaw Canadian Tire as community partners, a pilot project was soon underway. In the fall of 2005, teams of students and specialized community volunteers helped 100 Moose Jaw households benefit from up to $200 worth of simple home improvements, including preparing windows and doors for winter, replacing furnace filters, installing gaskets around light switches and plugs, replacing standard light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights, putting in low-flow shower heads and faucets, and installing programmable thermostats. The upgrades have the potential to save some households up to $150 a year on their annual home energy costs.

After the projects’ initial success, the Government of Saskatchewan and SaskEnergy announced that they would expand the project to other communities as part of Saskatchewan Energy Share, the province’s plan to help homeowners deal with volatile energy costs. The commitment involves retrofitting 2,500 homes over the next 5 years.

The SaskEnergy Share the Warmth Home Energy Efficiency Project will also encompass thousands of volunteers in these communities, which Reg Forbes thinks could translate to even greater energy savings.  “I know that the volunteers that go into these homes doing the upgrades will take that knowledge and may even do it to their own home without being subsidized.”  

While the project will have a significant impact on reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the province, what really makes the program special goes well beyond these benefits.  “The initial motivation for the project was education basically,” says Reg, “but this project has evolved to even greater things than just energy efficiency.  It’s a social statement as well and it really addresses the issue that we should be concerned about giving back to the community.”

This project is just another great example of how inidivuals in Saskatchewan can make a difference. “The SaskEnergy Share the Warmth Home Energy Efficiency Project really showcases what Saskatchewan is about…people helping people,” says Leslie Gosselin, Manager of Community Relations at SaskEnergy. “When a project like this comes along, that is little bit different from most community projects, there is always an extraordinary group of volunteers that are willing to share their time, knowledge and skills with those who need help.”