Thank you very much for your question.
The amendments to the Energy Efficiency Act are there to help Canadians save more money by reducing household energy use and in turn lowering home energy bills. The amendments modernize the act by increasing its scope and effectiveness. They pave the way for subsequent new energy efficiency regulations that will cover more products and cover them more effectively. The proposed amendments build on the Government of Canada's “Turning the Corner” plan to fight climate change, which of course sets an absolute reduction of 20% in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
Specifically, the amendments have to do with amending the scope of the act, allowing authority to prescribe labels of what information should be provided to the consumer when purchasing products, and clarification on authority to regulate the classes or categories of the products. It's those kinds of amendments that will help us toward the goal of the act to eliminate the least energy-efficient products from the Canadian marketplace. So when the Canadian consumer makes a choice for energy efficiency, they have the information to do so. Not only that, but we are eliminating from the marketplace those products that are not energy efficient.
Thank you very much for your question.
I look forward to hearing the committee's deliberations.