Thank you for that question. It's a really important one.
The previous government had the ecoENERGY program, which wasn't shown to be particularly effective in getting homeowners to reduce energy use on a large scale. I think there is an opportunity for this government to look at what mechanisms exist to finance retrofit in the home sector, because it's very consumer-driven. In order to do that, you need both the utilities that have a direct relation with the consumer on site as well as the cities and provinces. The cities and the utilities are critically important in making some of that happen.
A number of different programs on the housing side have been shown to bear some results. Some have come out of the United States. One is called the PACE program, which is basically loans to homeowners to make improvements. First of all, it has to be measured. I think there's no doubt about it. It has to be measured so that what you invest shows real savings in energy and carbon. The homeowner, through own-build financing and those types of things, pays back that loan, that investment, over time through the energy savings. That creates a cycle of rigour, I think, that's very important to make the right changes that provide results, and the homeowner who currently lives in the house, and the one who lives in the house five or 10 years from now, can pay back the investment that was made in energy efficiency improvements.
Just financing something, a certain behaviour, does not necessarily yield the results you're looking for.