Mr. Chairman, perhaps I could add a couple of things to Mr. Konow's points.
This may be of interest and of use to the committee. Until recently I was co-chair of the Energy Efficiency Working Group, mandated by the federal government to develop a set of principles on how to approach energy efficiency in the public domain. It's something that the provinces and the federal government have been thinking about and using, and you may find that of use or of help.
Among other things, the principles talked about include, first, “price matters”. You have to get prices right. But that isn't enough, and I want to emphasize that, over time, Canadians will have to see the real price of the energy they use. We'll have to deal with the competitiveness impact, and we'll have to deal with the social impact as that occurs, but over time that will be unavoidable if we want to get those energy efficiency gains.
After that--I agree completely with Mr. Konow here--you need the full suite of programs, including standards, that are available to government. You need to use them much more fully than they've been used to date. It has to be consistent over time. If energy efficiency programs are going to be effective, they have to be a steady pull over the long haul to build up the relationships with customers and the people who deliver those programs.
Finally, you need to take an integrated perspective. Things are connected to each other, and the best opportunities may not be available to you if you take too narrow a perspective on the problem.