Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few introductory comments.
My name is Thomas Mueller. I'm the president and CEO of the Canada Green Building Council. We represent 700 companies, large companies, across the building sector. We work not only with industry but also with labour partners across Canada in the green building sector. The sector has a significant size. In 2024, it represented $81 billion in GDP and supported over half a million full-time, skilled jobs in that industry. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before the committee for its study on home energy retrofits. It's an important topic.
Our central message is this: Canada does not only need more homes; we need better-performing homes. Energy efficient, healthy and resilient homes reduce utility costs and keep Canadians safe. Today I will focus on apartment buildings, homes for millions of Canadians, and how better performance is essential to long-term housing affordability.
All housing projects, new builds and retrofits, must prioritize quality and performance. The latest government data suggests that Canada could warm up to 5°C by the end of the century. As shown by increases in deaths caused by extreme heat events—and I live in British Columbia, where we had 600 people pass away during the heat dome a few years back—buildings must improve if they are to protect Canadians in a warm and unpredictable climate.
Beyond safeguarding Canadians from climate change, building performance also impacts their pocketbooks. Housing affordability isn't just about the purchase price, rent or mortgage. It's also about utility bills, repairs and maintenance costs. These expenses add up. Our recent commissioned poll shows that 60% of Canadians feel their energy bill is at least a moderate financial burden. Our other studies show that operating savings between 37% and 59% are possible for energy-efficient buildings.
Tackling public health and utility costs means prioritizing Canada's vast existing building stock. Retrofitting these buildings will be critical if we are to meet the nation's needs for quality housing for Canadians, in addition to our climate change objectives. Our success in this area will require a shift in thinking from existing buildings as a cost burden to existing buildings as high-impact investments that lower operating costs, ensure utility savings, protect tenants and preserve housing assets for decades. An efficient building stock is also an important part of our competitive economy.
To address the urgency and unlock the benefits of high-performing retrofits, we have five recommendations.
First, the government should embed energy performance requirements into affordable and rental housing investments, recognizing that affordability includes monthly costs such as utilities. There is clear support for this, as 88% of Canadians want efficiency standards in affordable housing projects.
Second, we recommend that the federal policy should support retrofit pathways that align with capital budgets and equipment replacement cycles by owners. This pragmatic approach allows owners to reduce energy use and emissions more affordably, and combines public and private investment into retrofits.
Our third recommendation is for stable, predictable multi-year retrofit funding. Building projects can take years to get off the ground. Short program windows and changing eligibility rules make it difficult to plan and invest, and quite frankly, it discourages small and medium-sized businesses and owners from pursuing retrofits.
The fourth recommendation is that government provide accessible financing for home retrofits, and this needs to be paired with consistent recognized approaches to measuring and verifying building performance. Third party verification of performance is important in ensuring that the performance built into the retrofit is actually achieved and maintained over time. Performance is key to achieving affordability. Savings help to repay loans that have been made by governments and others, as well as to lower utility bills for the occupants.
Finally, we recommend a coherent whole-of-government approach to affordable housing, which means having national strategies and programs that reinforce one another through consistent, stackable performance requirements and expectations for more streamlined, efficient and predictable delivery.
Home retrofits are not only a climate-change strategy; they're also an affordability, public health, equity and resiliency strategy.
Canada needs more homes, but it also needs homes that are safe, comfortable and functional for decades to come.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.