July 28, 2026

National Approach to Home Labelling: As noted in previous newsletters, the Federal Government is seeking to establish a national approach to home labelling for Part 9 homes to encourage energy efficiency in new and existing buildings.  

Natural Resources Canada now has a National Home Labelling Website, which includes “… several webpages describing the National Approach to Home Labelling, the features of home labelling and assessment tools, Canadian home labelling initiatives and funded projects, home labelling partners, and home labelling data and research.” 

They have also released Guidelines for Virtual Home Labelling, through which NRCan is seeking to:   

• “Align virtual energy assessments within Canada’s broader approach to home labelling;  
• Encourage consistent outcomes between different virtual energy assessment approaches and providers; 
• Inform organizations that are seeking to procure virtual energy assessments; and 
• Discourage ineffective tools and approaches from entering the home labelling marketplace.” 

If you have any questions or comments regarding the NRCan’s home labelling initiative or the Guidelines, please contact them at homelabelling-etiquetageresidentiel@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca.  

July 29, 2025

Although home labelling “… is outside of federal jurisdiction …,” last year’s Budget allocated “… $30 million over 5 years to develop a National Approach to Home Labelling (NAHL) … to create a consistent approach that will support labelling for all homes across Canada with energy performance ratings, energy efficiency recommendations and climate resilience information …”.   

NRCAN released a NAHL Discussion Paper last Fall that addressed how the federal government could work with jurisdictions and stakeholders to develop national guidelines for home labelling “…that can be adopted and implemented by provinces, territories and communities.” This included developing a Virtual Home Labelling Standard, and a Simplified Energy Assessment that would “… bridge the gap between virtual assessments and the existing …,” EnerGuide Rating System. 

NRCAN has now released a report on the feedback they received from stakeholders – Toward a National Approach to Home Labelling (see attached). It includes what they heard about:  

• The “Federal role in home labelling and collaboration with industry; 
• Industry roles and opportunities in home labelling; 
• Home labelling objectives and considerations; 
• Implementation approaches for home labelling; and 
• Home labelling tools and label design.” 

November 12, 2024

In Budget 2024, the Federal Government allocated “… $30 million over 5 years to develop a National Approach to Home Labelling (NAHL).” This is intended “… to create a consistent approach that will support labelling for all homes across Canada with energy performance ratings, energy efficiency recommendations and climate resilience information that will inform Canadians.” Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN) has now released a Home Labelling: Informing Canadians on Home Energy Performance Discussion Paper (see attached).  

In the Discussion Paper, the Government proposes to work collaboratively with jurisdictions and stakeholders to develop National Guidelines for Home Labelling to “… outline best practices and suggested policy parameters for home labelling that can be adopted and implemented by provinces, territories and communities.” Also, because virtual home labelling services are becoming more prevalent, they want to develop a voluntary Virtual Home Labelling Standard “… to increase confidence and consistency of the information provided by virtual assessments …”. They will be consulting on both initiatives in early 2025, and the first iterations of the Home Labelling Guidelines and Virtual Labelling Standard should be finalized in 2025.  

Finally, NRCAN has found that it would be challenging to utilize the EnerGuide Rating System (ERS) for homes for widespread home labelling because “…  it is seen as too expensive, time consuming and difficult to scale.” The Government wants to develop a Simplified Energy Assessment that would “… bridge the gap between virtual assessments and the existing ERS.” An engagement plan is being developed and will be released early next year. It is anticipated that the Simplified Assessment will be ready in 2026. 

NRCAN is asking jurisdictions, stakeholders and the public to submit their feedback on the Home Labelling Discussion Paper to homelabelling-etiquetageresidentiel@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca by December 31st.