Government Operations committee  We have, yes. It's included in our pre-budget, and we are working through some of the numbers.

Government Operations committee  When we look at it from an industry standpoint, it's not in our face. When our industry and government own really the same stock and have the same energy-efficiency problems, it needs to be publicized, it needs to be out there. There needs to be a target that the public knows, th

Government Operations committee  No, we support both and we view them as complementary.

Government Operations committee  Yes, and I'd add that buildings have different lifespans, and we wouldn't want to interrupt and make a major retrofit to a building if that chiller or boiler, for example, didn't need to come out yet. We do look at this in the short term for some retrofits, but it certainly is a

Government Operations committee  I would just say that targets are key to this entire program, and when we look at what our members have started to do, it's publishing and actively putting out their energy use numbers, and that is so important to the end game in this. It's not a public shaming if your building f

Government Operations committee  I would agree with everything that was just said. I'll break it down into two silos if I may. The first is obviously cost on the major retrofit side, and we've talked about that. The second is a little bit of misinformation on what we'll call the minor retrofit side. I'll go ba

Government Operations committee  It was in operations, and just in changing the behaviour of tenants. Tenants have to be a key partner in this initiative.

Government Operations committee  Sure. So the green lease was put out many years ago by REALpac. It's the first actual lease in Canada, to our knowledge, that sets targets within the lease agreement with the tenant. So it's not just simply saying that tenants will occupy this space for five years, but that they

Government Operations committee  It is offered to federal tenants. I'm not sure which buildings have utilized it, but it's certainly there for our members to utilize at their leisure.

Government Operations committee  Just to come full circle, we would advocate that chillers and heating pieces of equipment be included in class 43.2 of the Income Tax Act. Giving those the 50% depreciation rate that we're talking about here would fall in line with many other pieces of energy efficiency equipment

Government Operations committee  Yes, sure.

Government Operations committee  One of the good things about the commercial real estate industry is that over the past five years we have survived remarkably well in the global recession, outperforming many countries, including the U.S. and Europe, and our counterparts in Australia. It is safe to say that we d

Government Operations committee  It would be under the national model building code, and they would generally build to the specifications of a tenant if the agreement were for the builder to have a fully tenanted federal building. One of the things we've seen with a lot of our members, particularly in the new

Government Operations committee  As I said in my presentation, a number of REALpac members own or operate federally leased buildings. When it comes down to making major energy retrofits, it becomes a capital cost, a capital improvement project. Whether it's a federal tenant or a private-sector tenant, they still

Government Operations committee  Thank you. By way of introduction, REALpac is Canada's senior national industry association for owners and managers of investment real estate. Our members include publicly traded real estate companies, real estate investment trusts, private companies, pension funds, banks, and l