Strategy sessions for HVAC owners in Ontario

Seasons and the Great Lakes

Near the Great Lakes, southern Ontario's cold is tempered somewhat; head north and the heating season grows longer and harsher. For many companies in the south, summer air conditioning work creates a second busy period.

What it means in a session: where that second peak exists, it brings two capacity crunches and two shoulder seasons. Ali helps owners plan maintenance agreements around both, with furnace tune-ups in early fall and air conditioning checks in spring, so the quiet weeks are filled with planned, paid work.

A gas-led market moving toward heat pumps

According to Statistics Canada, 58% of Ontario households heated mainly with natural gas in 2023, with electricity at 18% and propane at 4%. Gas furnace replacement is still the core big-ticket job, but heat pumps and hybrid systems are a growing share of quotes.

As of October 2026, the Home Renovation Savings Program, delivered by Save on Energy and Enbridge Gas with provincial support, lists rebates for upgrades including cold-climate air source heat pumps, ground source systems and smart thermostats. Confirm current amounts and eligibility on the official page before quoting them to customers.

What it means in a session: rebates help close heat pump quotes, but they also bring in price-shoppers comparing several companies. Ali helps owners decide whether to compete for rebate-driven jobs or focus on customers who care more about service and speed. The marketing budget session tests both approaches with real numbers.

Regulators to know

Fuels work in Ontario falls under the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA), and electrical contracting under the Electrical Safety Authority. Trade certification sits with Skilled Trades Ontario, and workplace insurance with the WSIB. Ali doesn't advise on registration, licensing or compliance; go straight to each authority.

Ontario owners who also want marketing carried out can look at HVAC.Digital, another HVAC marketing brand in the group, alongside HVAC.Agency.

A worked example: narrowing the service area

A GTA company running search ads across a 60-kilometre radius might pay for clicks from customers an hour's drive away in traffic. If a third of booked jobs come from the outer half of that area, and each of those jobs carries an extra 90 minutes of drive time at $55 an hour, the company loses about $83 per job to the road alone. Narrowing the ad area may reduce lead volume, but it often raises profit per job. Ali walks owners through this trade-off with their own booked-job data.

The Ontario business mix, and how Ali approaches it

The largest municipalities include Toronto, Ottawa, Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton and London, with fast-growing York Region communities such as Markham and Vaughan. The Greater Toronto Area alone holds a huge number of HVAC companies, from one-truck operators to large multi-branch firms. Ottawa, London and the smaller cities are less crowded but still competitive.

Typical Ontario session topics:

• GTA: cost per booked job is often the deciding number, and many owners discover they're paying for clicks across too wide an area
• Price discipline: in a crowded market, discounting spreads fast; the pricing and margin session helps owners hold their ground
• Hiring: competition for licensed gas technicians makes retention a business priority, covered in the hiring and owner-time session
• Northern Ontario: fewer competitors, longer drives and a smaller hiring pool

If you run an HVAC company in Ontario, call, text or email Ali with your city and the decision you're working on. Other regions are on the areas page.