Looking to save money?

North Bay Hydro's Chief Operating Officer Todd Wilcox demonstrates how easy it is to retrofit a business to Nipissing MPP Monique Smith Monday.

Continuing on the path of making the city energy efficient, North Bay Hydro launched its Power Savings Blitz program for small businesses Monday.

The Power Savings Blitz offers qualified small businesses in the city to receive $1,000 of installed high quality energy efficient products installed by an authorized contractor. Chief Operating Officer Todd Wilcox says North Bay Hydro takes care of the whole process.

“This idea came from some discussion we had with small business over the last couple of years, and small business was telling us that it is often very difficult to get the capitol to get the dollars available to retrofit to energy efficient products,” he explains.

“This program was designed to help small business and to retrofit energy efficient products into small business without having to outlay capitol.”

Wilcox says he anticipates the program to continue until the end of the year, and that the process starts with a free audit by an authorized contractor by simply calling 474-8100 ex-267.

“It’s a first come first serve basis, we really encourage people to come out and take advantage now of the program -- don’t wait because the money is available now.”

Leading the charge Monday was Ontario’s Minister of Revenue Monique Smith who says she jumped at the chance to conserve energy while saving money.

“I met with North Bay Hydro about the different initiative they have going on in the community and when they told us about this one coming up we said put us to the front of the line … we will be happy to showcase it. So our office today is being retrofitted.”

Smith says her office is about 1200 square feet and retrofit cost is about $1300 but with the program from North Bay Hydro it will really only cost $300.

“It’s open to all small businesses that have energy consumption of less than $25,000 (a year) and we really strongly encourage small businesses in North Bay to contact North Bay Hydro because it’s a great initiative,” she says.

“It will mean better lighting in our office; it’ll mean long term savings in energy consumption as well as just generally a green initiative that I think everyone would be happy to support.”

Wilcox says restaurants do not fit the criteria of this specific program because of their refrigeration needs, but says North Bay Hydro is working on a similar plan to be offered for that industry in the very near future.