Heat Pump Rebates in Canada: Are They Worth It, and How Do You Apply?

As of July 2026, the federal Canada Greener Homes Grant is closed to new applicants (it closed January 20, 2026) — a lot of contractor sites still list it as active, so don't rely on those. The federal program currently open is the Oil to Heat Pump Affordability Program (OHPA) for income-qualified households switching off oil heat, worth up to $15,000+ in co-delivered provinces, but it requires pre-approval before work starts and has a hard July 31, 2026 application deadline in several provinces. Its income-qualified successor, the Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program, is rolling out provincially as a direct-install model. Provincial and utility programs (like Ontario's Home Renovation Savings Program) layer on top but vary by amount and eligibility. Apply before you buy, and confirm current status directly with the program — this page tells you which programs to check and why timing matters.

The short answer

Rebates can meaningfully offset the cost of switching to a heat pump, but the landscape is fragmented across federal, provincial, and utility programs that change on their own schedules — the federal Grant that anchored most 2024–2025 coverage of this topic is now closed. The honest starting point: don’t buy a heat pump because a rebate makes the math work — buy it because the operating-cost case works, and treat whichever rebate is currently open as a bonus you confirm before signing a contract, not after.

The Canada Greener Homes Grant is closed — a lot of pages online still say otherwise

The federal Canada Greener Homes Grant closed to new applicants on January 20, 2026. If you’re reading a contractor’s website, a rebate-aggregator page, or older coverage of this topic that lists the Grant as an active program you can apply to, that information is stale — not a live option. Its income-qualified successor is the Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program (CGHAP), described below.

What’s actually open right now (as of July 2026)

Rebate information verified July 2026 — reviewed quarterly. Two rows above are still flagged [VERIFY] because sources genuinely conflict; confirm those two directly before relying on this page.

The Oil to Heat Pump Affordability Program, in more detail

OHPA is the federal program most worth acting on right now if you’re eligible. It targets households currently heating with oil — specifically homes that purchased 500 litres or more of heating oil in the prior 12 months — with household income at or below the median. It’s worth up to $10,000 through the federal delivery channel, and up to $15,000 plus a $250 NRCan bonus in provinces that co-deliver the program alongside their own funding.

Pre-approval is required before any installation work starts — this is not a program you can apply to after the fact. And in Alberta, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories, Quebec, and Saskatchewan specifically (where the program is federally delivered rather than co-delivered with a province), July 31, 2026 is the last day to apply. If you’re in one of those provinces and currently heating with oil, this is worth checking today, not after you’ve already gotten quotes.

If you’re switching from oil to gas instead of to a heat pump, note that OHPA doesn’t apply to that path — see our furnace cost guide for the oil-to-gas conversion cost instead.

Ontario’s Home Renovation Savings Program

Delivered jointly through Save on Energy and Enbridge Gas, this program is open to Ontario homeowners, but reported heat pump rebate amounts vary between sources — some cite up to $7,500, others up to $12,000, which most likely reflects different tiers by system type rather than a single number either source got wrong. What’s consistently reported across sources: some upgrades no longer require a pre-assessment step, rebate processing typically takes 8–16 weeks, and pre-approval before installation is generally still required. Confirm the exact current tier amounts directly at saveonenergy.ca before treating either figure as your number.

How to check what’s actually open right now

1. Start with NRCan’s Greener Homes hub — it’s the federal index and usually links out to whichever provincial and utility programs are current.
2. Search your specific province + “heat pump rebate” and look for a .gc.ca, .gov, or recognized utility domain — not a contractor’s marketing page, which has an incentive to overstate rebate availability (as the still-widespread stale Greener Homes Grant listings show).
3. Call the program administrator directly if a web page is ambiguous about open/closed status. Program pages sometimes lag actual funding status by weeks.
4. Ask your shortlisted contractors which programs they’re currently registered installers for — this is also a legitimate contractor vetting question, since some programs require a registered installer.

The application-timing trap

The most common way homeowners lose out on a rebate isn’t ineligibility — it’s sequencing. Every program covered on this page that’s currently open requires pre-approval or a registration step completed before the heat pump is purchased or installed. Signing a contract first and applying for the rebate afterward disqualifies the claim in these programs. Before you sign anything with a contractor, confirm the required order of operations for whichever program you’re targeting.

Is it worth the paperwork?

If you’re already planning to install a heat pump, yes — the time cost of checking eligibility and applying is small relative to the potential offset, even a modest one. If a rebate is the only reason you’re considering a heat pump, look at the operating cost data first: the rebate should sweeten a decision that already makes sense, not be the sole reason for it.