The City of Merritt has shown its leadership in energy efficiency by signing up to be a pilot community in the provincial Community Action on Energy Efficiency (CAEE) initiative - Phase 2. Through MEMPR’s CAEE program, pilot communities are focusing on advancing energy efficiency through municipal policies and bylaws - read the Local Government Policy Instruments Initiative program for more details.

As part of CAEE, the City of Merritt received Council approval of a “council policy” that supports staff efforts to advance energy efficiency. With the policy in place, staff has latitude to pursue broad range of initiatives without having to check in every time. Next steps are to review the Official Community Plan (OCP) for ways to strengthen energy efficiency, design an o incentive for EGNH building labeling, and review zoning bylaw.

During the ESP incentive pilot that was conducted March 2006 - March 2007, community members had access to provincial grants for energy efficient retrofits to single and row housing.