June 10, 2026, by Justin Yule, published in Heating, Plumbing and Air Conditioning Magazine
As GaaS providers expand beyond Ontario into new markets and building types, demand for contractors with geothermal competency will follow.
A new white paper from the Building Decarbonization Alliance and the Transition Accelerator argues that geothermal heating is ready to scale across Canada—and that a new delivery model is the key to unlocking it.
The Geothermal-as-a-Service (GaaS) model hands financing, installation, and long-term maintenance of the ground loop to a specialized third-party provider, while the building owner pays a monthly service fee. That shifts the complexity and capital risk away from developers, and it creates a cleaner scope of work for the HVAC contractors brought in to handle the building-side mechanical systems.
For HVAC contractors, ground-source heat pumps are worth understanding in depth. They outperform air-source systems during Canadian winters, maintaining efficiency when outdoor temperatures drop and air-source units struggle.
As GaaS providers expand beyond Ontario into new markets and building types, demand for contractors with geothermal competency will follow.
The report flags workforce capacity as a key bottleneck to scaling the market. Geothermal expertise is unevenly distributed across Canada, and contractors who build that knowledge now will be well positioned as the model grows.
The full report is available at buildingdecarbonization.ca.