Reliance has its origins in the
storage water heater rental business formerly owned by
natural gas utility
Union Gas, which served much of Ontario. Reliance's main Ontario competitor, Enercare, has a similar origin as the rental business of Toronto-area utility Consumers' Gas. (The utility operations of both Union and Consumers' are now part of
Enbridge.) Beginning in the mid-20th century, Ontario gas providers such as Consumers' and Union would work with
home builders to pre-install gas-powered water heaters, which the providers would agree to subsidize and maintain in exchange for a monthly rental charge on each homeowner's gas bill. Due to regulatory changes, Union Gas' unregulated water heater business was split off in 1999 as a sister company named
Union Energy. Union Energy was then acquired in 2001 by
Epcor for about $160 million, The combined operation was then spun off as the UE Waterheater
Income Fund in 2003. Beginning in 2005, the company converted its retail operations to the new Reliance Home Comfort brand, as its
brand licensing rights from Union Gas and Hydro One were close to expiring. The fund was purchased in 2007 by Alinda Capital Partners for $1.74 billion. Around the time of the Alinda purchase in 2007, Reliance also purchased security companies Voxcom and Protectron, operating them under the "Reliance Protectron" name until selling the operations to
ADT in 2014. ADT Canada was subsequently acquired by
Telus in 2019. Since the sale of Protectron, Reliance has refocused on home maintenance services, including expansion into western Canada. It also acquired competitor National Home Services from
Just Energy in 2014. == Products and services ==