Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you all for appearing. I particularly appreciate being able to appear in Mr. Scarpaleggia's absence as his replacement.
The minister in his presentation, which some of you heard, said that he valued our insight and welcomed our suggestions, and I'm hoping you would continue that theme with this discussion.
He indicated on page 4 of his presentation that the government had developed a comprehensive plan to achieve real emission reductions and at the same time maintain Canada's economic competitiveness and capacity to create jobs. I want to speak specifically about ecoAction and the ecoENERGY initiatives, which were a continuation of what the former Liberal government had presented under the enerGuide program. We're frankly appreciative of the continuation of that program, notwithstanding its rebranding.
If I can personalize this for a moment, in Guelph a company developed around that ecoENERGY program called Guelph Solar Hot Water. It created jobs installing hot water systems on buildings. When that program was surreptitiously abruptly ended last year, the owner of that company, Steve Dyck, came to me. We spoke and he was literally in tears from the loss of opportunity, the loss of jobs for his employees, and the loss of income for himself. It was just a terrible experience.
I then received e-mails from I can't tell you how many people, including a lady from Mount Forest, Corey La Chanse. She owns Green-Seal Technologies, which installs insulation in people's homes, and her business has also been affected. This is a program that allowed people to participate in climate change mitigation. It helped local economies. It spurred innovation and created jobs.
The minister indicated, “I will be a fierce champion for those programs that have proven effective over the course of recent years”. He said that, and yet he has already signalled in the House of Commons that this is a program that would not be coming back, which I regret.
So these are my questions to you. Was that program successful? How many jobs did it create? How many jobs have been lost because it has stopped? In your capacity working with the minister, will you be recommending to him that those programs be reconstituted?