Northwest Energy Retrofit Forum: Learnings from a Regional Approach to Capacity-Building Initiated by First Nations and Involving Local Governments and the Construction Sector
Case Study
Published: June 5, 2025
Updated: n/a
Relevant Topics: Retrofits, Collaboration
For smaller communities, regional collaboration is often the only way to assemble the capacity necessary to make progress on local priorities. The Northwest Energy Retrofit Forum in 2024 demonstrated how capacity-building can be initiated by a First Nation and involve the active participation of local governments and the private sector within a particular region. It also highlights the importance of having a single organization maintain connection with participants and keep the partnership moving forward.
“This was an excellent event and I look forward to seeing where this leads, both in events and additional training as well as the development of our teams and communities.”
Those were the words of one of the participants of a unique training and capacity-building event that was held in Terrace and the Nisga’a Nation in June 2024. The Northwest Energy Retrofit Forum involved a tour, group discussions, presentations by experts, and hands-on training – all of which led to the establishment of a self-identified community of practitioners committed to realizing improved housing and economic benefits for the region.
What was the Northwest Energy Retrofit Forum and how was it conceived? What are some learnings that can benefit other communities and regions aiming to address their housing needs by improving homes that already exist? These are a couple of the questions this case study will answer.
Published: June 6, 2025
Updated: n/a
Relevant Topics: Retrofits, Engagement
Climate Zone: 6
Context
The Nisga’a Final Agreement became British Columbia’s first modern treaty when it came into effect in May, 2000. It created both a national and local governments in the Nass Valley north of Terrace: the Nisg̱a’a Lisims Government (NLG), which is responsible for the Nisg̱a’a Nation as a whole, and four Village governments. The jurisdiction for housing is shared by both levels of government.
Contributors
Gaëtane Carignan
Facilitator
Community Energy Association
Rob van Adrichem
Director of External Relations
Community Energy Association
Problem
In 2022, M’akola Development Services produced a housing study for Nisga’a Nation that identified the need to build capacity for home retrofits. The assessment determined that a full two-thirds of homes had serious structural concerns including problems with roof and gutter systems, foundations, walls, etc. The assessment also revealed that 25% of homes were experiencing mould.
In 2023, representatives of NLG attended a training session about the BC Energy Step Code that was presented in Smithers as part of Building a Legacy – North (BAL North), a program delivered by the Northern BC chapter of the Canadian Home Builders Association (CHBA) and CEA to provide training and information in Northern BC about high-performance homebuilding. CEA had recently started to work with Nisga’a Nation on climate-related programming and BAL North was suggested as a platform for developing and delivering customized training that would start to address the capacity shortfall identified in the M’akola study. This would also have the effect of exposing more northern builders to the Home Performance Contractors Network (HPCN), a database of BC contractors that meet specified trade designation and retrofit training qualifications. Northern BC has low levels of participation in HPCN but similar training opportunities for contractors elsewhere in BC has had the effect of increasing HPCN membership.
Solution
Since 2021, BAL North has worked to deliver a combination of webinars and in-person events tailored to the needs of contractors and other building officials working in northern and rural communities. The Northwest Energy Retrofit Forum emerged as an educational program about retrofits that would increase knowledge and capacity among regional contractors, municipal and regional government officials, and representatives of both the NLG and Nisga’a Village governments. A key feature of the program became the involvement of provincial experts in building science, mechanical systems, and integrated design process. These experts provided the content essential to increasing the competence and confidence of regional contractors who would need to take on retrofit projects throughout the region, guided by proven building science and a collaborative approach.
The Program
The Forum involved three days of programming:
June 3, 2024 – Bus tour of the Nisga’a Nation, with a stop in Lax̱g̱alts’ap to tour two homes: one built in 1996 and one new-build. Following a welcome and introduction from Eric Nyce, NLG Director of Capital, Housing and Facilities Operations, the provincial experts led a discussion among participants of each building’s structural and mechanical challenges and how they could be resolved. The dialogue was supported by data from airtightness tests that were conducted at both homes.
June 4, 2024 – A combination of presentations, Q&A, and dialogue in Terrace. The sessions began with the Nisga’a context followed by the building science and construction experts presenting information and facilitating conversation on a variety of topics:
- the integrated design process
- key energy retrofit considerations, such as the building envelope, mechanical systems, working with existing homeowners, and local capacity
- case studies of multi-home retrofit projects in other regions
The presentations and discussion were accompanied by a lunch and dinner for participants, which facilitated relationship-building and additional dialogue on retrofit topics and the regional context.
June 5, 2024 – A workshop led by RDH Building Science that included an overview of building science fundamentals and hands-on training using mock-ups that simulated actual retrofit techniques that could be used on an existing home. The hands-on exercises included upgrading window openings and accommodating utilities and other services that penetrate the building envelope.
Participants
Diverse participation was key to how the Forum was conceived and delivered. In addition to the provincial experts and CEA officials, representatives of multiple sectors and organizations participated:
- Nisga’a Nation, including the NLG, Village Governments, and housing officials
- Local governments, including building officials, Development Services staff, and an elected official
- The local/regional construction industry, including builders, HVAC installers, and a local certified energy advisor
- Home Performance Stakeholder Council
- BC Hydro
Participants also joined from a variety of communities, including Gingolx, Laxalts’ap, Gitwinksihlkw, Gilaxt’aamiks, Terrace, Prince Rupert, Prince George, Quesnel, and Williams Lake.
Total participation: 35 attendees, six provincial experts, three CEA staff.
Video
A video summarizing the Forum was produced by CEA. It was shared on the main Nisga’a Facebook page and on CEA social media channels. It has also been used in various presentations and to support additional fundraising for the program.
Provincial experts in building science, mechanical systems, and integrated design process who presented at the Forum:
Richard Hall – Red Seal carpenter, principal designer of the Wet West Coast Building Standard, Nuxalk Nation
Mark Bernhardt - Registered Energy Advisor, Passive House Consultant, and President of CHBA British Columbia (2024)
James Bourget – Principal, RDH Building Science
Meredith Hamstead – CEO of ThinkBright Homes, a builder of zero carbon and net zero energy ready homes
Rob Pope – Senior Consultant, Ecolighten Energy Solutions
Shawn Wiebe – Red Seal carpenter, Energy Advisor, Passive House Consultant, and Principal at Holistic Building Performance
Outcomes
and
Learnings
A cross-sector and pan-community regional approach is imperative
Having participants from multiple relevant sectors participating in the training together fostered trust and the identification of this group as a community of practitioners rooted in the region. Discussion during the forum flowed easily between multiple perspectives and priorities: construction techniques and building science, practical considerations for homeowners such as comfort and affordability, climate resiliency, and a notion of homes as inter-generational assets – all directly relevant to the local climate and regional construction context.
Beyond the shared regional experiences, Nisga’a Nation’s leadership in instigating the program and welcoming participation across sectors and communities was critical to establishing a sense of purpose for the collaboration.
“I came in from more of a new home-building perspective and I didn't really have as much knowledge with the retrofit side of things. I really learned a lot. It never even occurred to me with all this demand for housing to include what we already have.”
Experts bring experience, credibility, and encouragement
The expert group brought experience and expertise and showcased real examples during their presentations and discussions. In the Nass Valley, they facilitated the review of the existing and new homes so as to not implicate or embarrass local participants. The balance between outside expertise and local knowledge resulted in conversations and discussion that were both professional and locally based. Perhaps most importantly, the experts were encouraging and expressed genuine appreciation and wonder at the ambition of the Nisga’a Nation and the commitment of the other participants to this regional initiative.
“It’s not that hard to get the assemblies and intersections right when someone shows you and trains you.”
Advancing community priorities and climate action are also business opportunities
The local contractors participating in the Forum admitted that, to that point, retrofits were not a major part of their businesses. But they all acknowledged that with the challenges associated with building new housing – such as cost and available land – doing more retrofits could become a larger part of their businesses. This demonstrates how initiatives that might be undertaken for climate-related purposes can also support local businesses and the local economy. Such linkages should be actively fostered.
“We just recently got started to work with retrofits because we think there's more need for that than new housing at the moment. Nobody can afford new housing anymore to begin with, and there's a lot of older houses that still have good bones, so why not work with that?”
Training like this isn’t cheap
Many participants noted how unusual it was to have hands-on training in the Northwest region. Part of the reason for the historical lack of in-person training is the cost. The Northwest Energy Retrofit Forum cost about $120,000 to deliver. This included all of the program planning; travel expenses and fees for experts, presenters, and facilitators; food; travel between the Nass Valley and Terrace on day one; rental of the Terrace Sportsplex for programming on day two and three; promotion and marketing of the Forum; and production of the video.
Despite the cost, fees for participants were set far below normal rates for similar training. Participants were each charged $179 for the two-day workshop in Terrace (including lunches and dinners and an evening industry social), for example, and the bus tour to the Nisga’a Nation on day one was offered free of charge. The low registration fee was intended to make this kind of training as accessible as possible to anyone involved in the construction and housing sectors. Sponsorship was critical to being able to deliver a high-quality program while keeping registration fees low.
“Most training that we have to do is in places like Vancouver, or online, so it’s quite a distance you have to travel to get the quality training. But the whole thing about the building science and the dew points and how things work with the cold sheathing is all really good information to take away from this."
Maintaining momentum needs to be someone’s job
The Forum prioritized local context, values and relationships throughout its design and delivery. The relationships and connections that were built in person at the event planted seeds of ideas and new opportunities for further collaboration. It’s important, when investing in this type of training, to ensure there is an organization or group that can maintain connection with participants and keep priorities moving forward. BAL North and the NLG are collaborating to deliver more programming and training in the region. Before the end of 2024, five months after the Northwest Energy Retrofit Forum, they collaborated with the Home Performance Stakeholder Council to deliver the “House as a System” course in Terrace, which is one of the prerequisites for membership in HPCN.
They are also working with a costing expert from Natural Resources Canada to develop regionally specific costing scenarios for various levels and stages of retrofits in different Nisga’a Villages. The involvement of this expert, and their interest in supporting this initiative, came through connections made at the Forum and from viewing the video produced after the event.
“Keep it up! This team is awesome!”
Contributors
Gaëtane Carignan
Facilitator
Community Energy Association
Rob van Adrichem
Director of External Relations
Community Energy Association
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