Natural Resources Committee on May 7th, 2007

[Gordon Shields]

That would be correct, yes.

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

If we wanted to learn, as Canadians, from the leading country in this area—and we suppose it's in Europe—what country would we look to as to the target we should move toward?

[Gordon Shields]

That's a tough question, because Canada is unique in its own right and has its own challenges climatically and geographically, etc.

If you were to look from the perspective of the policy goal, and if the policy goal is to reduce your environmental footprint and change the energy paradigm in a way that enhances green energy supply, then Europe has a great model on how to accelerate that in the short term--Germany particularly. On the solar level, they came in with some short-term but high incentives to grow the market there. That market is now evolving, to a point where incentives have been reduced considerably. The solar market is growing exponentially there without much incentive.

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

I want to understand, as a complete non-expert, the policy guide. If I want to retrofit the windows in my home, there are some incentives at the government level for me to do that, but if I want to get into the area of generating electricity on site, there's no assistance whatsoever from any level of government. Is that the nub of it?

[Gordon Shields]

That's true for new residential construction, yes.

For the retrofit market, there is some support. In fact, geoexchange units could be put in the retrofit market, and are subsidized to a certain degree with incentive, but not in the new residential marketplace.

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

Okay.

Do you know of any municipality that offers incentives for on-site generation, by way of a lowering of property taxes?

[Gordon Shields]

I know there are some municipalities—In Ottawa here, there's a review right now in consideration.

[Andrew Cole]

There is a project with the City of Ottawa to look at using local improvement charges to finance energy efficiency improvements or, potentially, generation sources.

I believe there was a pilot in Whitehorse. In fact I'm not sure if it's operating currently, but they did do some work and proved that people would look at adding the financing onto their homes, putting a lien against their home that could be transferred to the next owner, because then it wouldn't affect their particular credit rating or credit position but would be tied to the building as a building improvement.

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

Without sounding protectionist, if Canadians en masse decided to do much more—much more—than they currently are doing with respect to their own homes, new materials, new technology would be utilized by those Canadians. Are the materials Canadian-manufactured, for instance? Is the technology home-based, or are we drawing from international markets for the materials and the technology?

[Gordon Shields]

I would suggest there's probably a lot of that. From the on-site generation perspective, there's a lot that's imported currently. But that being said, from the builder product point of view, there's a lot that's Canadian. There is a tremendous amount of Canadian talent, more importantly, and labour supply to do this kind of home. It's a question of just expanding it further throughout the builder marketplace, to answer that briefly.

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

Just lastly, Mr. Chairman, if I have a minute, you mentioned 2.5%. Again, as I understand your proposal, and the way you phrased it, Mr. Shields, I got the impression that this is not the first time you were mentioning to a committee or to federal government types the 2.5% reduction or the abatement of the GST. Is that correct?

[Gordon Shields]

We suggested the GST abatement a while back.

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

Do you mean a few years ago?

[Gordon Shields]

Yes, in 2005 we suggested it.

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

Okay. And you're suggesting it still, so I presume the reception was polite but not positive to the point of being implemented.

[Gordon Shields]

Well, understandably, we're at a stage where we're still learning. CMHC, to its credit, has helped bring this to the forefront now at a level at which we are not only going to learn from but at which we can demonstrate that this can happen. I think part of the challenge back in 2005 was whether this could happen. That's forgone revenue for something that we're not sure can happen. We're suggesting it can happen, and therefore we could use that today.

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

Thank you.

[Gordon Shields]

Sorry, just to add to that, there was one point. Tax instruments are not new. Mind you, it is a moderate amount. The provincial sales tax rebate exists right now on solar panels, for example, but it's nominal.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you, Mr. St. Amand.

Madam DeBellefeuille.

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you for your presentations.

We are here to discuss energy efficiency and ways in which we can reduce energy consumption. I think the whole world agrees that there is a point of no return with regard to global warming. There are of course some who contest this. However, there is a general consensus that, if we do not introduce concrete measures in the short term to slow down or reverse global warming, it will cost us more further down the line.

Last week, or two weeks ago, witnesses from the Canadian Solar Industries Association and the Canadian Geo-Exchange Coalition lamented the fact that no energy production goals have been set for their sectors. They said that this was hindering their development and preventing Canadians and Quebeckers from finding out more about sectors that are experiencing growth similar to that experienced today and in the past by the wind-power sector.

You spoke about on-site energy production: if future federal budgets provided incentives for the wind-power and geothermic energy sectors to set mandatory energy production targets, do you think it would strengthen your coalition and encourage Canadians to invest in renewable energy?

[Gordon Shields]

I think it would all complement the goal of reaching net-zero energy. It's not competitive in our approach; rather it's enabling the tools to get to net zero and remembering that net-zero energy homes represent the path to net zero. I say that because if we have targets for solar and for geoexchange systems and we have targets for other on-site generation, these will all be tools to allow the builder to consider for his or her marketplace what will sell. If we provide or illustrate a standard for net zero, then it's that path to getting there that will be important. And having targets for solar or having targets for other on-site generation will complement that journey to net-zero energy, at which point we'll see mainstream homes in the marketplace with these varieties of technologies.

So, yes, it would help support all of them.

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

The budget process includes pre-budget consultations that provide Canadians with the opportunity to make requests and set out their needs to the government. Consultations will begin in the fall. Within the context of these consultations, what exactly would you request so that the government could support your initiatives and Canadians and Quebeckers could better appreciate the advantages of investing in energy-efficient houses?

Your brief mentions basic incentive measures, such as a GST reduction; however, I imagine you also have some very specific requests that would help both builders and ordinary Canadians build energy-efficient homes. Do you have any specific requests, and if so, how much funding would they require?

[Gordon Shields]

If you're talking nationally, we're in the process of trying to do that right now. We're not in a position to give you a precise request for each province. We can provide a general framework of what we're asking for at the federal level.

We're doing more work in Ontario, and we're doing some work in Alberta now. We're hosting net-zero energy home forums in different provinces. Each province has a unique perspective on what would help the builder get net-zero homes.

So are there specific requests that are national in scope? We're waiting to do a greater in-depth study before we can give that to you. Our intention is to try to provide information for the pre-budget consultations. That's the best I can say to you right now.

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

That is a very good idea.

[Gordon Shields]

I don't want to pre-empt what we have. We just finished a major study, two net-zero energy home forums in Ontario. It brought an interesting perspective from builders and stakeholders in that province. It was quite comprehensive. We're just finishing a report that we're going to submit to the Ontario Power Authority, and we're still in the draft stage.

When we host one in Alberta--Simon Knight at Climate Change Central is going to help carry that through--I'm sure we're going to get a different perspective on what will be required there to help facilitate deployment of net-zero energy homes.

We'd like to take all those reports and studies and turn them into a national recommendation. But it would be presumptuous for me to assume what all those forums will provide as input.