Kate Porter is a condo resident in the Armdale neighbourhood of Halifax who wants to join the fight against climate change, but says complex provincial regulations on electricity are holding her back.
Porter and some of her neighbours in the condo want to install solar panels but when the condo board brought the idea to Nova Scotia Power, the utility said the rules it must follow prevent collective ownership of solar panels.
Residents say that puts solar-panel systems out of reach for people who can’t afford to buy their own.
“I’m mostly confused. It doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Porter said in an interview with CBC.
“It definitely would have helped me save money on my power bills but also, it would have maybe made me feel like I was doing a little bit more of my part to help out with the climate change situation,” she said.
Scott Hart is the president of the condo’s board. In an email, he said that the current Nova Scotia Power regulations only allow access to solar energy on individual accounts. He said the condo hoped to install the panels collectively.
“But because the condo corps account is only used for a few parking lot lights, they wouldn’t give us approval for panels that produced more power than that account used,” he said.
He said the residents are allowed to install solar on an individual, unit-by-unit basis.
“But then we are stuck with jurisdiction — the condo corp owns the roof and is responsible for upkeep, repairs and maintenance. If the shingles need to be done, it would be up to the individual owner to move and store their panels while we do the work,” he said.
“It would be much easier if the condo corp owned them and did it all together in a planned way.”
Tony Hall owns Podium Properties, a company that manages the Royalton in Halifax that has had solar panels heating residents’ water for about 15 years. (Paul Poirier/CBC)
But Tony Hall, the owner of Podium Properties, said it does not have to be that complicated.
Podium Properties manages the Royalton, an apartment building in Halifax where solar panels were installed 15 years ago. Hall said the panels are used differently than most in the solar industry.
The solar panels are located on the building’s south-facing lawn and are used to pre-heat the building’s water, so it’s an internal system owned by the condo board and is a shared expense among the residents.
Hall told CBC in an interview that the panels were installed to reduce the condo’s carbon footprint and to reduce costs. He said the resident’s have seen a drop in their bills of up to 20 per cent.
“It’s a steady saving compared to other buildings of similar sizes and I think it’s a source of pride,” he said.
Solar panels are installed on a Cole Harbour, N.S., home in this file photo. Residents of multi-unit homes say it’s easier for single-family homes to use solar power because of government regulations in the province. (Robert Guertin/CBC)
He said the system is seamless and runs itself, and he recommends that other condos look into solar energy.
“There’s obviously the greening which is a great thing for the future,” he said. “But also I think that it’s how quickly people see the savings which is really the driving fact.”
Hall says he would like to see the government and service providers make solar panel operations easier for condos so more people would do it.
“I think that the future is in the simplicity of all,” he said. “When they see the benefit and the cost, that’ll take the confusion out of everything.”
New provincial program in the works
The Nova Scotia government is aiming to address this issue, said Patricia Jreige, Natural Resources and Renewables spokesperson, in an emailed statement.
“Government is always looking to expand solar installations,” she said.
The upcoming community solar program, she said, is expected to be implemented later this year.
Phil MacKenzie owns MacKenzie Solar Engineering, a solar panel consulting and installation company. He said that from a technical perspective, installing solar panels for collective use is complicated. (Mark Crosby/CBC)
Phil MacKenzie runs MacKenzie Solar Engineering, a solar consulting and installation company. He said that there are many technical complications when it comes to installing solar panels on condo buildings because usually, each unit has its own power meter.
“It’s challenging from an accounts perspective, metering perspective, and from the regulation side of things,” he said.
Complications arise
“They’ve set in place a couple of ground rules for solar projects and as long as you are able to stay within the confines of that framework, then you can get a solar project going, but sometimes it’s just not possible,” he said.
MacKenzie said he hasn’t worked on many of these types of projects, “but on projects that I’ve looked at for condominiums, it does get complicated quickly where you have multiple account holders with one single roof.”
Polycorp, a Nova Scotia real estate developer, started a petition to ask political leaders to allow multi-unit buildings to install solar panels because it, too, is running into roadblocks.
In an emailed statement, Nova Scotia Power spokesperson Mia Atia said another option is for customers to subscribe to its community solar garden program, the first of which is in Amherst. That’s where N.S. Power installed 4,500 solar panels to generate green electricity for the provincial power grid.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
