On the list, or not on the job.

A homeowner decides on a heat pump. He goes to the program's site to see what he gets back. It hands him the list of participating contractors near him and tells him the contractor has to be registered before the work starts. He calls three names off that list.

If your shop isn't on it, you never knew the job existed. No missed call, no lost quote, nothing to review at the end of the month.

Ontario's numbers, from the program's own page. Cold-climate air source heat pump: up to $7,500 if the home runs on electricity, oil, propane or wood, up to $2,000 if it's an Enbridge Gas home. Ground source: $3,000 on gas, up to $12,000 off gas. If the house is on gas, it's the smaller number every time. Check the fuel before you quote the rebate to anybody.

And one rule that costs shops real money: "Pre-approval is mandatory. Installations done before approval are not eligible for rebates." Not the invoice. Not the final inspection. Before the work starts. That's the one that turns a rebate into an argument in somebody's kitchen.

The paperwork half is insurance certificates in the exact format the program wants, licence verification, WSIB clearance, banking setup, attestations, portals that time out and lose your upload, and a program manual nobody has time to read. That part I do.

The qualifying half is your shop clearing the program's bar: a valid trade licence, general liability, workers' comp, and in some U.S. programs certifications and criminal background checks on anyone entering a home. I can't get you any of that. Ontario also requires its own training, which is the stated reason registration is paused. Your people sit that training. It can't be handed to a third party and I won't pretend otherwise.

So the first thing we do is go through the list. If your shop can't clear the bar, I tell you and we stop. That conversation is free.

When Colorado opened its program in November 2025, Colorado Public Radio reported that only four contractors in the whole state had fully completed registration, and more than 40 companies were still working their way through it. Those aren't bad businesses. The file just sits.

The U.S. Department of Energy reissued its guidance on May 29, 2026. It removed "program allowances for upgrades for fuel-switching," and now allows rebates "for upgrading HVAC and appliances only from existing electric equipment to more efficient electric equipment."

If you sell heat pumps in the States, that's your pipeline. But it's closing, not closed. States that had already launched get three months from May 29 to bring their programs in line, and rebate reservations already approved under the old rules can still be executed. The date is different in every state. Wisconsin has published its own: fossil-fuel replacements through August 31, 2026. Ask me what your state's date is before you plan around it.

The electrification stream, HEAR, is also income-tested. Wisconsin's program says it plainly: "All participants must verify their gross household annual income is less than 150% of the Area Median Income."

Ontario's Home Renovation Savings is a separate program with its own rules. None of this touches it.

Rebate jobs are still rebate jobs. You take the discount off the invoice up front and wait to be repaid after the claim clears. The two owners of a Colorado heat pump company wrote in Colorado Newsline in June 2026 that "one mistaken checkbox can invalidate the entire payment with no recourse," and described waiting "sometimes over a year before getting fully paid." Their words, not mine.

Being on the list gets you the call. It doesn't shorten the wait to get paid, and I won't pretend it does. If your cash can't carry a job while somebody else's queue moves, this isn't for you yet, and you should hear that from me before you spend anything.