Running a heating company in Quebec when furnaces are the minority

Who the buyers are

Montréal, Québec City, Laval, Gatineau, Longueuil, Sherbrooke, Lévis and Saguenay hold most of the market. Most homeowners there heat with electricity, often baseboards or an electric furnace, so their upgrade path is a heat pump on ducts or ductless heads. The remaining fossil-fuel homes split between gas, oil, propane and wood.

For a furnace-led company, that suggests three customer groups:

• Electric-furnace homes adding a ducted heat pump, where duct and air-handler experience is a real advantage.
• Remaining oil and propane homes, many of which have been encouraged to convert.
• Gas customers, a small but loyal service and replacement base.

Climate and season

Winters across Quebec are long, cold and snowy, and they get tougher the farther you are from the St. Lawrence valley. Cold-climate performance therefore dominates the heat-pump conversation, and backup heat remains important in deep cold. That is where furnace and electric-furnace experience still earns trust.

Programs as of October 2026

• LogisVert. Through LogisVert, Hydro-Québec pays toward ENERGY STAR heat pumps based on capacity at -8°C, with a higher per-capacity rate for cold-climate models and a listed ceiling of $6,700; geothermal and some other measures are also covered. Hydro-Québec notes that a federal heat pump rebate is coming in 2027 and that LogisVert requests are processed normally.
• Chauffez vert. The provincial aid for replacing oil or propane heating stopped accepting applications after 2026-03-31. Any marketing still mentioning it should come down.
• Canada Greener Homes Affordability Program. A Quebec agreement announced on 2026-06-29 funds no-cost upgrades, heat pumps among them, for roughly 25,000 low- and median-income households.

Where furnace experience still pays

A furnace-led company entering Quebec's heat-pump market isn't starting from zero. Ducted heat pumps depend on good air distribution, and many electric-furnace homes have ductwork that needs assessment, balancing or repair. Backup heat still matters in the coldest weeks. And the remaining gas, oil and propane homes need someone who understands combustion equipment, whether they keep it or convert. Those are real advantages over a pure ductless installer. The task is to present them in French, in a brand that says "heating" rather than "furnaces", and to price conversion jobs by their actual complexity.

Language and regulators

French must be clearly predominant in commercial advertising for Quebec customers under the Charter of the French Language as amended by Bill 96, and websites for Quebec customers must be available in French. The OQLF publishes guidance for businesses. This affects your website, proposals, truck lettering and care-plan paperwork.

Contractor licensing is handled by the Régie du bâtiment du Québec, construction trade competency by the CCQ, and workplace safety by the CNESST. We link these only; compliance questions go to them and your advisers.

How we'd approach a Quebec furnace-led company

1. Reposition the brand as a heating specialist rather than a furnace company, using fuel-shift positioning.
2. Lead the option sheet with heat pumps on existing ducts, with LogisVert linked and dated, and keep the furnace as backup or specialist option.
3. Price conversions properly. Ductwork changes and electrical upgrades vary widely, so a margin review by job type matters.
4. Build French-first materials from the start rather than translating English ones.

Quebec is the clearest example of why our areas hub refuses to give one national answer.