Evidence of meeting #39 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was vehicles.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Okay. I would like to follow up, then, on some comments that were made earlier in terms of the small steps that can be taken, whether it's reducing temperatures or having motion sensors to turn lights off and on. As I walk around these few buildings that the federal government operates, it seems there are a lot of times when there are lights on and there's nobody in the room, or the heat is high. So I think we should continue to work at it, whether it's zone heating or thermostat setbacks and those kinds of things. I just want to echo that.
I'm certainly affirming of the green steps that have already been taken. I just think we need to keep moving ahead. And each of us individually needs to take responsibility for that. We can't expect all of it to come from a government mandate. I think in our homes and here on the Hill we can all take little steps that will make a huge difference.
Thank you for your presentation today.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
I was wondering whether those buildings you mentioned would include Canada Post buildings?
February 27th, 2007 / 4:45 p.m.
Director, Buildings Division, Office of Energy Efficiency, Department of Natural Resources
Do you want me to answer?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
Yes. It did seem like a high number, but if it includes Canada Post, that adds quite a few.
Director, Buildings Division, Office of Energy Efficiency, Department of Natural Resources
Actually, regarding what I told you about the number of buildings, I meant in floor space. Floor space and the number don't necessarily equate. I based those numbers on the 32 million square metres of buildings the government owns. I'm not sure if that coincides with the 45,000. That would not include Canada Post. If you would like Canada Post numbers, we'll have to come back with that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
They have a lot of buildings as well.
I'm just going to use the prerogative of the chair for a minute and ask whether your plan looks into the purchasing power the Government of Canada has in forcing companies, say, to use less packaging. All of that packaging comes when you purchase something. It drives you crazy, and it fills up the landfill sites.
That's just a thought.
Elizabeth Hopkins Director, Policy Development, Office of Greening Government Operations, Department of Public Works and Government Services
When we look at the bundling of government purchases, the green procurement policy certainly provides the opportunity to identify the interest of the government to have a supplier take back the packaging.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
It's not only that they take it back, but that they supply the product without the packaging. That's what I'm asking for.
Director, Policy Development, Office of Greening Government Operations, Department of Public Works and Government Services
Depending on the commodity, certainly that requirement can be built into the specifications.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Diane Marleau
It should be built into all of them. There's a lot of packaging you don't need.
Is there another Liberal who wants to speak here? No?
Mr. Warkentin.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Thank you very much.
I'd like to thank each of you who have come today.
We often like to take credit for the work that happens, and we know it's the civil service that does so much of this. We'd like to thank you for your leadership in this area. Obviously with the movement towards the greening of the country, never mind government, you are on the forefront.
Of course you're going to have no end of suggestions. Here we go with my continued list.
One of my pet projects in the last while has been this whole idea of net metering, the average individual putting a solar panel on their house and having the opportunity to buy energy when they need it and being able to supply energy when they have an excess within their home. The biggest problem with this of course has been the issue of the transmission and power companies and who will buy it.
The Province of Alberta has actually led the country on a number of these fronts; it has gone completely green in its energy consumption. As well, they're actually speaking about being the purchasers of this energy that's produced by the private individuals--this non-commercialized energy.
I'm wondering if the federal government has ever looked at this particular initiative, or the possibility of this.
Director General , Office of Greening Government Operations, Department of Public Works and Government Services
We have a number of contracts where we have purchased green electricity. Right here in Ottawa we have a substantial contract in place for that, and certainly in Alberta, where there is a supply as well. With the last contract we put in place there, 85% of the power that Public Works was using is coming from green sources.
In terms of generating our own power, it's interesting. As Ontario starts to...it looks like changes will be made to allow someone to feed into the grid. We have had conversations with some people who are interested in pursuing that in government buildings. We don't have concrete plans right now, but it's something we're interested in looking into further.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
That's fantastic.
It's exciting to hear about the project in Yellowknife. Of course we'd love to see that duplicated in all of our federal buildings. It looks like as the technology advances we're going to see a reduction in the cost of solar panels. There's a lot of exciting things on that front. Certainly we encourage you and wish you the best on that. I guess tying into that would be having solar panels on all the roofs of our federal buildings. Maybe down the road we can do that.
I'll say as just a side point that I'm running on green power at my constituency office. We actually tie into a cogen plant that's in our community. The RCMP, on the lower level, have actually done it as well. It's a wonderful thing. There are some exciting things happening in smaller communities. I know the federal government will poll some of those ideas that have happened there.
Our committee is going to be looking at some possibilities for business moving forward. I guess my question would be what the largest challenge is as the government tries to move forward on its agenda to green itself. Are there some things that we, as a committee, could possibly look into--places where the federal government may be running into roadblocks and places where we could be of service to you in this effort to clean up the way we do things?
Director General , Office of Greening Government Operations, Department of Public Works and Government Services
As always, on an initiative like this, leadership is very important. It's very symbolic. When we talk about the executive fleet, for example, that means something, because people watch what leaders are doing, and departments watch what their ministers are doing and what the members of Parliament are encouraging. I think there are probably a lot of areas where we can all contribute. But leadership is very important for a file like this.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Thank you very much. We really appreciate your coming in today, and we appreciate the work that you're doing.
If you could figure out a way to outlaw form letters, I'm certain we'd save a lot of paper in our offices. After this weekend, I came in and there were 300 pages with the same wording. It was obviously....as a joke.
But I do appreciate your work and effort in this area.
Bloc
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
I have just a quick question. Does “buy local” factor in at all to the green procurement program? We described paper earlier. The question I was going to ask is, would we be buying domestic paper whenever possible? Or is that part of our criteria?
Director, Policy Development, Office of Greening Government Operations, Department of Public Works and Government Services
The procurement will be done respecting our trade agreement obligations. So under those obligations under NAFTA or the Agreement on Internal Trade, you wouldn't be able to identify “local” as a requirement in that procurement. It would be a competitive process.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
Okay, so that's something we could identify as a criterion that we would see?
Director, Policy Development, Office of Greening Government Operations, Department of Public Works and Government Services
The trade agreement obligations do not allow you to identify it as a criterion in the procurement process.
NDP
Peggy Nash NDP Parkdale—High Park, ON
How does that affect our green procurement, then, if we're importing paper from wherever, if we produce it domestically?
Director, Policy Development, Office of Greening Government Operations, Department of Public Works and Government Services
The green procurement policy provides for value for money. So taking account of the cost and the availability, quality, and performance, there would be a determination as to what the requirement would be, and there would be a competitive process. As we saw of that process, it may or may not be a Canadian supplier who is the successful bidder.
