Government Operations committee  Certainly across the economy there are examples of different kinds of funds to finance energy efficiencies. Toronto has a very interesting one called the Toronto atmospheric fund, which funds building retrofits across the city.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Geoff. The International Energy Agency does regular monitoring of the energy efficiency performance of countries in its purview, so 18 or 20 countries. The latest statistics show that Canada was the second most improved in energy efficiency over the past two decades, second only behind Germany.

Government Operations committee  May I add something?

Government Operations committee  To finish that off from the Office of Energy Efficiency's perspective, we'll provide advice to anybody who has an energy bill in Canada. Under the federal buildings initiative, obviously, we are focusing on federal government departments. For any federal government department or agency, we will provide help and support, but my broader mandate is to improve energy efficiency in every sector of Canada, and so for anyone with an energy bill, we have something to help you with.

Government Operations committee  We would certainly make available our documents and expertise. We have a number of other instruments to help them, a benchmarking tool, for example, so that they can track and compare their energy use. We work with the provinces on codes, so that we codify better performance year after year.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. I'm happy to answer that question. Natural Resources Canada promotes long-term energy management planning as the very first step, and through the federal buildings initiative we certainly share all of our tools and services that support planning. When I put up the slide that showed our tools, there was one on training, which includes training and materials and examples of long-term management plans.

Government Operations committee  Thank you, Geoff. We understand from the previous presentations you've had that you're interested in learning more about this program. We mentioned it in our previous appearance, but the rest of the deck focuses on this program and how it operates. It's a federal government program aimed at federal government departments and operated out of my branch of NRCan.

Government Operations committee  Thank you. It's an excellent question. The program got its initial authority in 1991, so it's been around for a while. I would say that we have the capacity. We're dealing with 11 departments right now. We certainly have the capacity to serve those departments and additional departments, and that's why, as I mentioned earlier, we are marketing this quite healthily to our departmental audiences.

Government Operations committee  If I might pick that up, as a service organization we offer training on energy management to the entire Canadian economy. We have a training program called Dollars to $ents, and we have six different titles on finding opportunities, measurement and verification, financing, and so forth.

Government Operations committee  Maybe I could just add to that. With responsibility for helping Canadians in all sectors improve energy efficiency, we are very cognizant of the fact that encouraging energy efficiency upgrades across Canada in any sector is going to have an employment impact. The good thing about that employment impact is that it happens where people live.

Government Operations committee  Let me clarify my earlier response. The nine firms I mentioned were nine firms that operate nationally. They are specialists in not only implementing energy efficiency upgrades in buildings, but they have the capacity to finance them as well. They're a special entity known as an energy performance contractor.

Government Operations committee  Certainly.

Government Operations committee  In the federal buildings initiative, we concentrate our promotional activities on our client base; that is, the departments that can use the federal buildings initiative. We choose various venues to ensure that managers who have custodial responsibilities are aware of our services, because the FBI is, in effect, a service organization for other departments.

Government Operations committee  In some cases, it's client-driven. If a particular department has a particular interest in a technology, they will express that interest. Then the private sector will return with the feasibility of how it could be included and what the economics would be. The department would have the final say.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for the question, Chair. We have served 16 departments since the program started in 1991. I'm just checking my notes here so I don't misspeak. I believe we've covered over 80 buildings in that time. But let me put it in a way that may be easier to understand. Of all of the federal buildings initiative projects that have happened since the program's inception, we have addressed one third of the crown-owned space.