Thank you, Chair.
I'm reminded in this conversation that for so long I think a lot of Canadians have thought that the problems with what we're dealing with are technical in nature, that there is just not enough technology available, where we don't have the solutions to our challenges with greenhouse gases or energy efficiency. Your presentations today remind me yet again that technical is not the problem.
I'm also reminded of a town in my region near Terrace—which is Hockeyville—a small place called Fort St. James that for years was building a town hall and wanted to do geothermal. And this went through both Liberal and then Conservative administrations. It's a northern British Columbia municipality. It's not big, just a few thousand people. They were really hooked on this, because they had run the numbers on just cost. They weren't interested in greenhouse gases as such. They fought for years with government to try to find money out there available to allow them to go geothermal. In the end they just said “Skip it” and built it themselves and paid for the extra costs upfront themselves. If any of the committee members will visit, they will proudly take you down to their geothermal unit and celebrate that their energy bills are about $300 a month for a fairly sizeable municipal hall—for everything: for their heating, electricity, and the rest.
Mr. Horan-Lunney, are you aware of any national goals Canada now has in terms of its green infrastructure? I know Germany, for example, has a 5% renovation cycle going on right now, where they hope to renovate 5% of their total national stock every year. Do we have some sort of equivalent in Canada?