Thank you, Mr. Chair. For clarity we will be splitting our time and we have allocated our 10 minutes.
Thank you, committee members, for inviting us here today to discuss habitat conservation and the many ways in which Canada's electricity sector is a leader in this area. Canadian Electricity Association members generate, transmit, and distribute electricity to residential, industrial, commercial, and institutional customers on a daily basis. We represent all aspects of the electricity system, or grid, which is the largest and most complex interconnected machine in North America.
As you can imagine, operating such a massive system means that our service territory is pretty large, likely larger than any other industry you've heard from today. As such, our members have extensive experience and expertise operating within all types of geography and habitat across the country.
For CEA members, species and habitat conservation goes beyond individual initiatives being undertaken by a utility in a specific part of the country. Rather, it is an industry-wide culture of stewardship, of which we are very proud. This stewardship culture is a key part of our commitment to a holistic approach to managing impacts that include environmental, societal, and economic considerations. CEA's sustainable electricity program is the embodiment of this approach. It is a mandatory, sector-wide sustainability initiative that measures and rewards performance.
In 2012, Ontario Power Generation earned the highest honour available under the program—sustainability company of the year—for their exemplary commitment to minimizing their environmental footprint through innovative environmental initiatives and partnerships, including innovative solutions to wildlife and habitat restoration and biodiversity.
l'm pleased to be joined today by Dan Gibson, senior environmental scientist in Ontario Power Generation's hydro environment division, who is here to tell you about some of the excellent conservation work being undertaken by OPG. Following his remarks, I will outline some specific policy recommendations put forward by the industry as a whole, related to the national conservation plan.