Natural Resources committee  Yes. Essentially you have to pay for maintenance of a system like that, and there's a small heat pump that needs to be operated by gas, but it's not even close to the amount of energy you'd need if you heated with gas, electricity, or by any other source.

Natural Resources committee  Typically in British Columbia you can build up to six storeys now with the new building code in wood-frame construction. If the wood-frame construction is properly executed and well done, in buildings that are properly maintained they can last for a very long time. They can last for hundreds of years.

Natural Resources committee  As I said, Public Works and Government Services Canada builds buildings of a certain size to a LEED gold standard. You have a community of several projects now that have been certified, and several are under development. We've been working with the Office of Energy Efficiency over a number of years now on joint initiatives to promote energy efficiency in buildings across Canada through the LEED program and other means as well.

Natural Resources committee  It is a bigger challenge. Often it's not as obvious. The Canada Green Building Council is launching a rating system for existing buildings by May, nationwide.

Natural Resources committee  Incentives would be welcome. For example, if a building owner retrofits a building quite significantly, at the end of the day, they have to pay the capital improvement tax. If there could be a break, for example, in the tax system for many developers, that would be quite welcome to them, in terms of their getting a break on green development for something they bear the costs of, but of which the beneficiaries are really the occupants and Canadians, through a better quality of life.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for inviting me to speak to you about green buildings and integrated community energy systems. There's a tremendous opportunity that we have here in Canada to improve energy efficiency through green buildings and community development. If you look at the handout on the tonnes of carbon per person in selected cities in North America and Europe, you will notice that many cities in Canada rank significantly higher than cities in Europe.

Government Operations committee  Yes. There is a template, and there are several documents out there now. One was recently issued in B.C. It's a workshop to train people on the process. It's very clear how the process has to unfold and what players need to be at the table. The knowledge is out there. In the news, there has been a lot of talk about integrated design process.

Government Operations committee  There's one in B.C. There is a group associated with us, a multi-stakeholder group that has just developed it. I'd be happy to point you in the right direction. We also have a product that we deliver to building owners that tells them how they can implement policy, what the process is to actually go from policy into practice.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me.

Government Operations committee  Yes, it's the Gulf Islands demonstration building—

Government Operations committee  Yes, in Saanich. It has an ocean-based cooling system, a geothermal system, and it's built from wood, so a natural material. It has the highest performance rating in our building rating system.

Government Operations committee  The new convention centre is going to be a LEED gold building. It's going to have the largest green roof in North America. Also, there is the Olympic village. They registered 20 buildings a few days ago in the Olympic village for Vancouver that are all going to be certified LEED gold.

Government Operations committee  Actually they said they would go to LEED gold, and there is word that they are actually aspiring to the highest level of certification.

Government Operations committee  Maybe I can explain it this way. You have 70 credits in LEED, and there are also prerequisites, so these are things that all the buildings have to meet. If they can't meet those prerequisites, they can't use the LEED system. In Canada, just on the energy side, our LEED system is tied to the commercial buildings incentive program, which is a percentage above the Model National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings.

Government Operations committee  If it's about policy for all of government, I think the report of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, which I mentioned in my presentation, lays out a pretty convincing agenda on how buildings not only contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions but what strategies can be used in buildings right now--commercial institutions as well as residential buildings--to get there, to actually get to a 50% reduction in energy use in new and existing buildings across the country.