VICTORIA — Special to The Globe and Mail

Companies specializing in green energy solutions are seeing red over the cancellation of LiveSmart BC, a move they say will hurt the province's burgeoning green industry sector and undermine the Campbell government's efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.

Cancelled without warning late last week, LiveSmart BC offered a range of cash incentives for homeowners who invest in energy-saving technology.

Among the hardest hit will be firms that make and install "Energy Star" windows, a rating that entitled homeowners to a $30-per-window rebate.

The demise of LiveSmart is part two of a double whammy for makers of eco-friendly products that will lose their provincial sales tax exemption when BC adopts the harmonized sales tax next July 1.

"It affects 100 per cent of our business. All we sell is Energy Star windows," said Mark Brandow, sales manager for Centra Windows, a $16-million company with outlets across southern B.C.

"All my second- and third-quarter promotions are geared toward the LiveSmart program. Our phones have been ringing off the hook with customers who have either just signed their contracts or were thinking of going ahead."

Companies that sell and install heat pumps, the cleanest and most efficient alternative to conventional (electric, oil and gas) heating systems, were shocked by the program's end.

Wendy Wilson-Storey of CoolFlame Home Heating in Nanaimo said LiveSmart offered rebates of up to $1,420 on the estimated $6,000 cost of replacing a conventional furnace with a heat pump.

"It's not good news. We've been swamped with work in the last couple of months, but after that runs out who knows how people will react?" Ms. Wilson-Storey said.

"[The rebate] was a great motivator for people to go green."

Ms. Wilson-Storey also spoke to the second half of the one-two punch, the new harmonized sales tax: "Right now you don't have to pay PST on heat pumps, so there's another 7 per cent when the HST kicks in."

Consulting firms offering home energy "audits" are also feeling the heat, said Peter Sundberg, executive director of City Green Solutions, a Victoria-based non-profit that promotes energy efficiency programs.

To qualify for energy-retrofit rebates, LiveSmart required homeowners to undergo a $300 initial assessment of their home's energy efficiency, $150 of which was reimbursed by the province.

Over the past year, City Green has been doing "500 to 600" energy audits a month. Mr. Sundberg, who has 22 employees, is anticipating a "25- to 50-per-cent" drop in those numbers.

"City Green is going to be hit hard, but we have other things going on so we will fare better than the others," Mr. Sundberg said. "Energy audits are about 60 per cent of what we do."

Energy and Mines Minister Blair Lekstrom said Friday thatLiveSmart B.C. was a "victim of its own success," devouring its $60-million funding allocation in just over 15 months, far faster than the government anticipated.

In that time, close to 40,000 British Columbians signed up for home energy audits, and 11,000 of those followed through with energy retrofits.

Homeowners who completed their initial audits before the close of business Aug. 15 remain eligible for the LiveSmart rebates.

Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources spokesman Jake Jacobs said the province is working on a "future version of this efficiency program," but added that details of those discussions are "unavailable."

Clay Martin, owner of CR Martin Heating in Langley expressed confidence the extra work the program has created will keep his company busy until the government comes up with a replacement.

Federal incentives such as a $150 rebate on follow-up energy audits and up to $500 for installing a heat pump are still available, he added.

In March, the federal government announced a 25-per-cent increase in grant values under its ecoEnergy Retrofit program.

Mr. Sundberg said LiveSmart's incentives were a crucial part of the government's promise to reduce greenhouse gases by 30 per cent over 10 years. "This program was the most cost-effective way for them to achieve their greenhouse-gas reduction targets," he said. "From the heating systems people to the windows guys ... these programs create community-level economic activity and have a huge impact on emissions."

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