Canada Heat Pump Rebate Clock Starts November 1, Portal Opens in 2027

The clock that decides money for Canadian homeowners who replace a furnace with a heat pump this winter started on Sunday. The federal governments National Heat Pump Rebate does not open until early 2027, but its retroactivity period began on November 1, 2026. A household that meets the rules and installs an eligible heat pump from November 1 onward can apply once the portal opens, the Government of Canada says on its program page.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the program in Sherbrooke, Quebec on October 8. Ottawa will spend $2 billion over eight years to support up to one million home retrofits. The heat pump rebate is the centre of the package, aimed at up to 820,000 homeowners who install an eligible electric cold climate air source heat pump.

What a household gets

Households below their province's median after tax income can receive up to $10,000. Other eligible homeowners can receive $2,000. Only one rebate is paid per person. Heat pumps must be on the eligible products list, which Ottawa says holds more than 100,000 options built for the Canadian climate.

There is no energy audit, before or after. The government says the online portal will confirm approval within 24 hours, and it built the program around the moment a heating system fails. About one million Canadian homes replace a heating system each year, and about 80 percent of those replacements happen because the old system broke down, federal officials said. Households heating with oil, propane or electric resistance heat save more than $1,400 a year on average, according to the government backgrounder.

The rest of the package

Ottawa is also working with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Canada Infrastructure Bank to help apartment building owners retrofit 280,000 units over the same eight years. Through its mortgage loan insurance program, the housing corporation will help retrofit up to 250,000 additional units. Combined, the government says the measures will cut emissions by more than 25 megatonnes, which it compares to taking nearly 8.5 million cars off Canadian roads for one year.

What happens next

The detail that matters this month is paperwork. The full eligibility rules, eligible product list and application steps were due on November 1, and the portal itself opens in early 2027. A homeowner who installs an eligible unit this fall or winter needs to keep the receipts and the product details, because the claim can only be filed once the portal is live. The rebate stacks on top of provincial programs in provinces that run their own.