City plans to offer rebates to help Calgary homeowners install hail-resistant roofs

The city is looking at putting money into a roof rebate program in order to help reduce the number of houses suffering damage during major hailstorms.

Council's finance committee gave its approval on Tuesday to a programthat would see a limited number of $2,000 rebates go to homeowners who install more durable roofing material.

The news comes several months after thousands of houses in northeast Calgary were damaged by a major hailstorm making it one of the costliest natural disasters in Canadian history.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi says the city's goal isto help reducedamage caused by hail in order to help the community.

"A $2,000 grant for example isn't going to get you a new roof but it might help offset the cost of building something that's more resilient," he said.

Coun. George Chahal says reducing the damage from future storms would cut down oninsurance claims and the environmental cost of replacing roofing materials.

"This is an opportunity for the city to support residents with a grant program to ensure we can get more resilient roofing products installed without impacting housing affordability," he said at the council meeting.

He says $800 millionwas spent to replace damaged roofing materials after last summer's storm, as well as damage that occurred within the houses.

Community steps up after hail storm

4 years ago

Duration 1:30

People are finding their own ways to support neighbours who are struggling.

"This is the only part of Canada that faces these extreme weather patterns when it comes to hail and the Institute of Catastrophic Losses has indicated the one thing we can do to ensure that these huge insurance losses do not continue to occur are to have a better, resilient roofing product."

Councilhas assembled$1 million for the program butdetails won't be ready until next month.

The city also plans to ask the province if it's willing to contribute to the program in order to help more homeowners.

"I'm hoping that the provincial government sees the urgency of this initiative and would also come forward and support it through tax incentives or credits or a similar rebate program," saidChahal.