The United States government under President Bush--not under the present government--actually committed to a percentage of adoption of renewable energy by government buildings, and not just new government buildings. I think it was 15%, 20%. I'm sorry, I should have the exact number, but I forgot to pick it.
So the first step is to have that commitment, because then it makes it clear. Otherwise, you're just stuck in the traditional procurement issues of the Government of Canada, which is the bid that comes in at the lowest price and the fastest, etc. I was a consultant for a while. It just all kind of lined up tick, tick, and your name comes up and that's excellent.
Actually, if over that there were a commitment that 15%, 20% of Canadian government buildings had to get their energy from renewable sources, then I think you would see a major change, and it would show leadership. You are seeing it in some new builds, but not consistently, so I absolutely agree with you. You see it here, you see it there. And you see various departments doing it, depending on how they plan.
For example, Correctional Service of Canada has either already adopted or is in the process of adopting solar thermal technology in the penitentiaries in Saskatchewan, which is an excellent way for them to use hot water because they have lots of people who need to have showers. So you go from that kind of thing, where within a department a certain person decided to drive this agenda because they thought it was forward-looking. They had found the way to fund it, but it was not an overall commitment.
Every time the discussion comes out, it's “Well, we rent instead of own some of our buildings.” Well, I would say the Government of Canada is a fairly large tenant and people would welcome those buildings. So if part of it is to have some of the energy supplied by renewable resources, I think that would inspire the building owners to do that. When we build buildings we shouldn't just have the occasional building, as you said, but we should actually have a clear commitment that there should be a percentage, and that should be clear right across the board.
For example, it's very hard to penetrate the Department of National Defence, yet it has large installations across the country. In the United States the military installations are adopting renewable energy, and in fact a number of them use solar air technology that was developed in Canada for air heating. So there are real opportunities. That would build an industry, it would build jobs, it would build technology. It would deliver a whole lot. It would also give Canadians something they could point to--other than the 5,000 homes we're going to see in Ottawa, which I'm very happy to hear about.