Evidence of meeting #95 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was buildings.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
I understand you yourself worked in the cement industry at one point.
In your introduction, you said that it is important to go beyond costs. Could you expand on that? I see your point, but money is everything, so there is an impact.
You represent companies in the wood industry, and the other witnesses represent companies in the cement industry. However, in terms of cost, you both need to consider affordability and viability. Isn't that the case?
President, Canadian Wood Council
Yes, and it's a question of social values as well. Instead of prioritizing CO2 or greenhouse gas emissions over cost, I would say it's important to take them both into account. That would allow us to consider the cost and measure carbon at the same time, which would help us make good decisions.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
I agree with you.
It is important to strike a balance between economic development and greenhouse gas reduction, or else it is not viable. As a society, we will not be able to...
How long do I have left, Madam Chair?
President, Canadian Wood Council
If you have two solutions of equal value, both of which promote carbon, choose that solution.
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
Thank you, all of you. It was all very important testimony. Some of you may have also testified when we did the government operations review a number of years ago, making very similar kinds of recommendations at the federal level so that they could save money on energy efficiency. It's good to have you here again.
I'm sure that all of my colleagues here join me in congratulating Mr. Nasseri, the owner of Landmark, for his recent Order of Canada, in part for his innovations in affordable energy-efficient housing. I'm really glad that Landmark could join us here.
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
I'm wondering if you could tell us a bit more about this innovation, the ACQBUILT, this advanced construction and then assembly. Could you speak to what your experience is with customers who are seeking the Landmark approach to building? Do they put energy efficiency high on their list? Are the builders ahead of homeowners, or where are we at there in Canada?
President, Landmark Homes Canada
The ACQBUILT facility is a 150,000-square foot indoor closed manufacturing facility in Edmonton. It is equipped with equipment from Germany, machinery and robotics. It currently has the capacity of manufacturing panels for four homes per day. In essence, the manufacturing facility enables us to do all of the framing, all of the installation of the doors and windows, and rigid installation on the exterior, putting the cladding, siding, and all of the shingles on the roof in segments. It panelizes every single component, delivers them to sites, and erects a roughly 2,000-square foot single family home in less than a day.
It significantly reduces the construction cycle time. The best we have been able to do from excavation to key release is 46 days for a single family home, and this minimizes the impact on the environment and on the neighbourhood.
From the customer standpoint, our customers are the general public. Our homes are no different than any other home as long as we are able to identify and put the home in a three-dimensional model using building information modelling. Then we digitize that, and we feed it into computer-controlled machinery and robotics. The machines don't care whether it's an 80,000-square foot home, or 800-square foot home. They build panel by panel. They optimize the natural resources and minimize waste from the lumber, for example. We have been able to use engineering as well as the machinery building multiple panels at the same time—
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
Mr. Mannani, you're getting into more detail than we have time for, unfortunately. I think it would be really helpful if you have any kind of material that summarizes this production and how it reduces time and costs, but I have some other questions to ask, and I just wanted to say congratulations to you, so thank you.
President, Landmark Homes Canada
Thank you. I can send you a video of our manufacturing facility.
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
Okay, thank you very much. We'll share that with the committee.
My next question is about this issue of the delay in the net-zero code. From my perspective, if that code is not in place until 2030, there's a huge delay then in reducing after that, because it's time to catch up.
I'm happy to hear from anybody here about what the federal government can do to move this ahead and identify what's needed for the skilled labour, what's necessary for R and D, and what we could do to speed this up so we could have benefits sooner. I'm wondering if any of you could speak to that part of it. Should we not be including the costs if we don't do the retrofit for the energy efficient housing?
Maybe we'll start with you, Mr. Mueller.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Green Building Council
I'm not a code expert, but I think the code cycles need to be faster. It's not only that the federal government finishes the code. It's then the adoption by the provinces, of course. That can result in long delays. In a way, the code could be a very good tool, but time is against us.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Cement Association of Canada
I think Michael Giroux and I would agree, since we're very active players on the national building code, that today they're fixated on the distance between spindles on a staircase so that kids' heads don't get stuck in them or so that kids can't launch themselves over the railing. However, they're not fixated on climate change and GHG reduction. Michael spoke to that in his comments.
President, Canadian Wood Council
First of all, it is the step code for energy. We'll get there, but with time. It's a question of continuous improvement.
I think you need to support the continued improvement process, and you can accelerate that by investing in the proper R and D with that condition established. You can use LCA to measure it—a life-cycle analysis or something—but what you want to do is make sure that everything that leads to that 2030, and maybe before, is measured, is quantified, and is better than the last iteration. That's what you have to do.
NDP
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Very good, yes. We should be quicker at our questions so we can get to all our answers.
Liberal
Churence Rogers Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
I just want to ask a couple of questions.
I thank all the presenters for being here today. It's great information.
For the group, Landmark, out in Edmonton, I'm just going to repeat a question Darren asked earlier. For home buyers who come out looking for net-zero homes, what kind of additional cost is associated with buying one of these versus a traditional home, and what is the return on the investment? How long does it take to recoup that extra cost?
President, Landmark Homes Canada
The costs have come down. There used to be around a $40,000 to $60,000 premium for that. Apparently, with the rebates and so on, you are looking at about $18,000 extra that you are paying for a net-zero home. There are additional incentives. The CMHC, for example, has rebates that it is providing. Customers, particularly first-time home buyers, are more interested in capitalizing on the energy efficiency option, and customers are gaining more interest. The number of interested parties is increasing right now. We are having quite a bit of an increase with regard to energy efficient homes in the marketplace.
Liberal
Churence Rogers Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
In terms of recouping money, how long does it take? Do you have a number of years?