As you said, it is paramount for us to do something about climate change. As a government, we have to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, as well as to green our operations. Our priority is also to raise this issue with other governments and the private sector.
As a government, we have many opportunities to improve our approach, whether in our buildings, our operations, our trucks, our cars, or our procurement in general.
Public Services and Procurement Canada plays a very important role in the government. Our Parliamentary Secretary, Joyce Murray, is truly a leader in terms of
the greening of government operations. As we move forward, this is going to be part of...we will be investing more, and we'll be investing smartly. It doesn't necessarily mean spending more sometimes.
By making our buildings more eco-efficient, we reduce our energy costs. If we consider the
life cycle costing and not just upfront costing as a practice, it creates greener procurement. This is something which, when I was minister of public works in Paul Martin's government, we worked closely on with Environment. You can, just to put it in perspective, have a significant positive impact on reducing the cost of government if you build and renovate more with greener approaches.
In addition, as a government, with green procurement, we can also create a lot of economic growth in green industries. We are working in close co-operation with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, given that this department is mandated to promote green industries.
Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions while driving economic growth in the industries of the future, the green industries, is a key focus for our government.
