Calgary's Roof Replacement Rebate Program

As of May 10th, the city of Calgary council voted and approved a new program to incentivize home owners to upgrade from standard roofing products to more impact resistant products to help protect homes from severe (but seemingly common) weather damage that has impacted the city year after year, the big culprit? Hail damage.

This new change goes into effect June 1st 2021 - Keep reading for all the details about this program.

Resilient Roofing Rebate Program

Calgary is now offering residents a $3,000 rebate to homeowners that suffered hail damage in 2020 who installed or are planning to install roofing that is impact resistant.

George Chahal the councillor for Ward 5 said “The rebate program is one way we can help Calgarians make the switch to impact-resistant materials that can withstand more extreme weather events.” further stating that the city routinely experiences severe weather (hailstorms) throughout the spring and summer months and citing one of the most devastating (financially) storms in history last year.

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What Roofing Material Is Covered?

According to the city of Calgary home building and hailing website - the following roofing materials are eligible, (but aren't limited to):

Asphalt shingle
Concrete tile
Clay Tile
Plastic/polymer/composite products
Recycled rubber
Metal

Eligible roofing materials must meet these standards:

Underwriters’ Laboratory Standard 2218, Impact Standard for Impact Resistance of Prepared Roof Covering Materials, or
Factory Mutual Standard 4473, Specification Test Standards for Impact Resistant Testing of Rigid Roofing Materials by Impacting with Freezer Ice Balls.

Am I Eligible For The Calgary Roofing Rebate?

The requirements for eligibility to this program are outlined on the city of Calgary hail site we previously linked, but in short they include that:

■ My property is a single-family, semi-detached or duplex home

■ I am in good standing on my property tax roll

■ I have proof that my roof was damaged from a hailstorm in 2020, or I will apply for the program starting January 2022

Hail in Calgary

Our city is located in what some dub 'hail alley' an epicentre for hailstorms in Alberta and Canada. On average, the city see's five hailstorms per year, it has become a major financial burden, with rising costs for insurance and repairs. During today's storm season, our city see's clouds being 'seeded' by planes while storms begin to form, this is done as a combined effort to reduce the size of the hailstones within. Hail can cause significant damage to homes, property, vehicles and can cause bodily injury depending on their size.

Checking Your Home After A Hail Storm

First things first, know the signs of an impending hail storm. If you observe dark or blue/green coloured clouds, stronger winds, lightning, thunder, heavy rain, you should monitor your the weather forecast and Alberta Environmental Emergency Alerts to ensure you and your family are protected.

If you anticipate a hail storm and believe it is safe to do so, you should place all vehicles, and important outdoor items inside your home or garage, this includes: Patio furniture, boats, lighting, plants, boats, recreation vehicles, etc. Otherwise, stay inside and away from windows or skylights.

Once a hail storm has gone through and passed, you should walk the perimeter of your entire property and look for any damage to your home, property or vehicles. Capture a video documenting as much as possible. Report to your insurance provider as soon as possible, but remember you may not have coverage if the costs of repairs is less than your deductible, or if your roof is really old and has a lot of pre-existing damage.

Calgarian's React to proposed hail rebate program

It didn't take us long to find some reactions from Calgarian's and their sentiment towards this program. A thread started in the r/Calgary subreddit titled City plans to give out grants for hail-resistant roof repairs - at the very least sheds some light on how other tax payers feel about the program, with many citing insurance being the solution for this and pointing towards builders to be forced to use better materials.

Roofing Rebate program Final remarks

City officials have stated that this program won't be widely adopted, and after reading more remarks on the numbers, we wondered if their estimates were right. “There’s 320,000 homes in Calgary to be eligible for this type of program,” Kris Dietrich with Calgary Building Services said. “We said that approximately seven per cent of those people could potentially be looking at replacing their roof" (Which would represent 22,400 homes) which amounts to a decent amount of homes, however he further stated "And then of that seven per cent, we figured about three per cent may be interested in this program.” which brings the total homes estimated to 672. Not very many, hence why the budget of $2.175 Million was granted.

Which leaves us asking, what is this program truly looking to achieve long term? Will it expand and grow as other homes are damaged by hail? Is this program just designed to aide those that are or will be impacted by hail storms? Should the city be looking at implementing programs to encourage builders for new homes and infills to utilize this type of impact resistant material in their builds? What about siding?

What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments below if you agree or disagree with this move. Have you received a quote for this material vs others, what was the price difference?

Posted by Cody Tritter on August 21st, 2021

Calgary Roofing Rebate Program