Green infrastructure investment supports Canada’s ongoing transition to a clean growth economy. Energy efficient building retrofits as well as electric and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure can have long-term impacts on Canada’s climate related goals and related outcomes.
Our Investment and Advisory teams work with a variety of public sector entities (particularly provincial and large municipal) and private sector partners to develop the next generation of green infrastructure.
Investment in large-scale projects crowds in private capital where investment from the private sector has traditionally been limited due to the uncertain nature of expected cost savings. Our experts developed a mainstream, broadly marketed debt product to attract new market participants.
We provide accessible debt financing for infrastructure which reduce GHGs over the projected life of financed assets. Our investments also create employment opportunities.
Our Building Retrofits Initiative (BRI) provides financing for energy retrofits projects. The Initiative invests in the decarbonization of building and provides attractive financing to reduce investment barriers and drive carbon savings. Our team of experts works with the public and private sector as well as other market participants to modernize and improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings.
Eligible Buildings
The public sector under the BRI includes all levels of government, Indigenous communities, schools, hospitals, and universities. The eligible assets include all types of buildings, such as administrative offices, courthouses, correctional facilities, hospitals, campus buildings, student resident buildings. It also includes infrastructure such as parking facilities, transit stations, transit yards and transit hubs, streets and highways lighting, etc.
The private sector includes privately owned commercial, industrial, and multi-unit residential buildings. Eligible assets include real estate investment trusts (REITs), investment trusts, retail chains, corporations, etc.
The Initiative is open to applicants through three different approaches:
1. Direct investment loans to owners of single or multiple buildings,
2. Participation and agency agreement with first ranking mortgage lenders,
3. Privately-owned special purpose vehicles (SPV) created for parties such as:
- Existing Energy Service Companies (ESCO) and contractors, or
- Property management firms, or
- Third-party investors, or
- Commercial property assessed clean energy (C-PACE) and on-bill financing program administrators, or
- Public (Provinces and Municipalities) and municipalities, universities school boards, and hospitals (MUSH) sector.
For more information on the Building Retrofits Initiative please refer to the adjoining documents or email us.
Nearly one quarter of Canada’s GHG emissions are produced by the transportation sector. Transitioning from gas and diesel-powered GHG-emitting vehicles to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) powered by electricity or hydrogen represents a key opportunity to reduce those emissions. To capitalize on this, the federal government has set a broad policy goal of accelerating the adoption of ZEVs in Canada and is seeking to add 50,000 new chargers and refuelling stations in the near term.
Our team developed a Charging and Hydrogen Refuelling Infrastructure (CHRI) initiative to support the federal government’s ambitious objective. We plan to invest $500 million in large-scale ZEV charging and hydrogen refuelling infrastructure across Canada.
We will provide financing to the private sector structured to share in charging and refueling infrastructure use risk by aligning repayment with use levels. If use does not reach certain agreed levels, then required repayments will be proportionally lower. Conversely, in circumstances where asset use levels exceed expectations the CIB’s return will increase proportionally. The financing structure is intended to address the uncertainty of ZEV adoption rates faced by developers and investors, so they can invest in charging and refuelling infrastructure with confidence.
The CIB’s proposed financing will be available as a credit facility based on a qualifying network implementation plan. The CIB is coordinating with Natural Resources Canada under their existing Zero-Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program to maximize the effectiveness of the federal government’s contribution to charging infrastructure. Implementations supported by the CIB will also remain eligible for NRCan funding to the extent required for the project to remain commercially viable. More information on federal zero emission vehicle programs is available on Natural Resources Canada’s website.
For more information about the CHRI initiative please contact us at: investments@cib-bic.ca.
For more information on the initiative, please consult the adjoining documents or email us.