September 22, 2026
Written by Pat McCutcheon
patmcc@mailbox.org

My wife and I decided in 2023 to electrify our house. Our house is a typical detached house in the Cloverdale neighbourhood. This project involved removing the natural gas furnace and hot water tank and closing our Fortis BC account. We
replaced these items with an electric heat pump and hot water tank. Because of the increased electrical load, we also had to upgrade our electrical service from 100 amps to 200 amps.

Our decision to embark on this project was partially driven by the climate change-driven heat dome in 2021. The summers were clearly getting warmer, and air conditioning was now becoming a necessity. Moral values also influenced our decision.

Climate scientists around the world have made it abundantly clear that society has to rapidly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions if we are to leave a livable planet for future generations. By electrifying our house, we believe we are doing our part to reduce our carbon footprint.

It was clear what we had to do. However, that didn’t prepare us for the sticker shock. The total project cost came in at $26,931. Fortunately, there were some rebates available totaling $12,100, resulting in a final cost of $14,831. Below is a detailed breakdown of the project’s cost.

As is evident from the above cost breakdown, it is extremely expensive to retrofit an existing house fitted with natural gas heating and hot water. Most people will struggle to cover the cost. It is far cheaper to electrify new residential construction when it is being built rather than retrofit down the road.

Surrey has to stop pretending that the effects of climate change are a distant problem for someone else to deal with. Climate change-related events are upon us and will continue to worsen until our global civilization reaches net-zero carbon emissions. Surrey has to become part of the solution, not carry on as part of the problem.

Most climate scientists will tell you that this past summer will be the COLDEST summer you will experience for the rest of your life. Summers will continue to get hotter, and people will be forced to retrofit their homes at a crippling cost. By allowing builders to continue hooking up new residential homes to natural gas, Surrey is committing the new owners to an expensive retrofit down the road along with the continued greenhouse gas emissions associated with burning natural gas.

All of Surrey’s municipal parties are completely ignoring this issue. For a city that brands itself as ‘The Future Lives Here,’ this policy on natural gas hookups represents a major failure. Other cities in the lower mainland, including Vancouver, Burnaby, and West Vancouver, have developed building codes that restrict new residential construction from being hooked up to natural gas.

Surrey and other local governments are climate change laggards. This needs to change, and voters should keep this in mind on October 17.