Natural Resources Committee on May 2nd, 2007

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK]

How did they pick the priorities? Did they say this is going to carbon dioxide, or this has the quickest payback, or this is a proven technology, or this is the democratic vote of the area? What was it that people were responding to?

[Barb McDougall-Murdoch]

I would likely say it's a combination of those things.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

All right, then. For our traditional wrap-up address, Monsieur Ouellet, have you got anything more to add?

All right, Mr. Russell can answer.

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Thank you as well. The presentations were fantastic.

I'm just wondering--if I'm a municipal taxpayer, am I going to end up paying more because of your innovations and improvements in Okotoks, or more because of the types of programs you've introduced in the greater Sudbury area? Will I pay more, or less, or will I see any difference?

[Richard Quail]

In our community we'll argue that you'll pay less because of efficiencies achieved. Instead of pumping two million gallons of water--treating it, putting chemicals in it, and distributing it through the community on a daily basis--we're only pumping and treating one million, so you're saving the costs associated with that or other energy efficiency initiatives. At the end of the day, we believe there's a bottom-line saving for the constituents of our community. We're in a market-competitive environment as municipalities, relative to property taxes payable, utility rates, etc., and council is very conscious of that as well.

[Barb McDougall-Murdoch]

I think Sudbury is interesting in an iconic sort of way. I talked a lot about industry and mining in my presentation, but what I'd like to say is that in 1985-86, Time magazine did an article about Inco, saying that their investment of $500 million was the single biggest investment in energy retrofits at that time in the world. Economists at that time talked about the collapse of mining with respect to more stringent emissions reductions. We moved forward with that investment to a reduction of 60% of sulphur dioxide emissions, and the payback for that work was less than ten years.

The environmental improvements we realized because of that were a byproduct of energy consumption and energy conservation. Now that we're talking about managing greenhouse gas emissions and carbon dioxide, it's just like how we managed and dealt with sulphur dioxide. Across the country, companies are--

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Let's talk about the taxpayer--the Sudbury taxpayer, the municipal taxpayer.

[Barb McDougall-Murdoch]

I would say that there is an investment initially, but the paybacks to the community individuals are substantial.

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Monsieur Ouellet, may we have your final comment?

[Christian Ouellet, Bloc, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Mr. Chair, I would like to know if they have done anything about external lighting, because this is the most significant factor in our cities in Canada. Have you done anything to reduce losses in lighting? House lighting, street lighting, lighting in general represents a net loss.

[Richard Quail]

Do you mean like pollution?

[Christian Ouellet, Bloc, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Yes. There is light pollution, and there's also a loss in energy. A light outside is a large loss.

[Richard Quail]

That's true, although the other side of it is that as a municipality, you're bound from a liability point of view, from a public safety point of view, if you don't have appropriate illumination levels. We've developed and pushed hard for low-illumination, high-efficiency, reduced-light-pollution types of lighting standards throughout the community--that's the one thing we've done around that--but you have to balance out the public safety factor, and we're not at a stage of forgoing street lighting for energy savings while compromising public safety.

[Barb McDougall-Murdoch]

We've done similar work in greater Sudbury, but I would say on the light pollution side of things that the push toward a reduction has come more from the non-profits or NGOs in the community in moving that agenda forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

We will go to Mr. Tonks for a final comment.

[Alan Tonks, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I mentioned the name of the late Tom Davies, who was a mayor and regional chair. He was an officer on the North American board. I think he was the North American vice-president of ICLEI and an executive member of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. His name is legend in Sudbury. He was one of the finest elected people I have ever met in my life. I just wanted to make sure that Tom, if he's looking down, is remembered for the initiatives that he took in the area of sustainable development. He was really one of the spark plugs, along with Paul and others in Sudbury.

Second, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you and to thank Chad and our translators and those who helped put the visit together to Churchill Falls, Grand Falls. From my perspective, and I'm sure I speak on behalf of the committee, it was an excellent and most educating experience, and it couldn't have been done without the planning that went into it. On behalf of the committee, I express our appreciation. I'm sure it will assist us in the future with respect to bringing the report together in terms of a balanced commentary on what we saw. We express our appreciation to you and Chad.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

We express it to our researchers as well.

Also, I wanted to thank Mr. Russell for his help on the ground. We've had quite a week.

It's been a very good week for the committee, not the least of which was your appearance today. It is really quite remarkable to have two communities so very different in terms of history, background, age of communities, and so many other things in a joint goal with the same target and achieving such remarkable progress and sustainability. It is really quite inspiring to those of us on the committee who are getting to know more about this. These are wonderful examples, and I'm very appreciative of your appearance today.

Thank you very much.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

With that, we are adjourned.