The CIB launched the CIB Building Retrofits Initiative (the “Initiative” or “BRI”) to play a key role in catalyzing and accelerating the deployment of innovative energy efficiency solutions throughout Canada, complementing other government programs.
The Initiative is intended to accelerate deep retrofits in publicly and privately owned buildings. The Initiative is part of the CIB’s $10 billion Growth Plan aim to stimulate jobs for Canadians and strengthen Canada’s economy through new infrastructure investments.
The federal government has identified energy efficiency as one of the most significant components of its plan to achieve a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. CIB is currently exploring innovative ways to support its public and private sector clients and project sponsors implement retrofit strategies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy and maintenance costs associated with the operations on their real estate portfolios.
The CIB aims to offer flexible financing for building retrofits and to ultimately facilitate crowding in of private capital in an area where investment from the private sector has traditionally been limited. The CIB’s investment product is anticipated to take the form of debt under commercial lending and/or project finance structures. The CIB is also open to explore more financing options on a project-by-project basis.
On April 7, 2021, the CIB issued a Request for Proposals for the purpose of forming a vendor of record list to provide the CIB with a readily available list of prequalified advisors and benefit from economies of scale in pricing and rates for recuring services, more particularly, for the provision of various lender’s technical advisory services required in connection with the BRI (the “Existing VOR”).
The intent of the current Request for Proposals is to allow the CIB to refresh the Existing VOR and select one or more preferred technical advisor(s) (each a “Vendor of Record”) for the Initiative, replacing the Existing VOR. When Services (as defined below) for a future project are required, the CIB will seek to engage a technical advisor from the list of Vendors of Record through a simplified competitive process based on the specific project.
