Evidence of meeting #8 for Natural Resources in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was budget.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
I think Mr. Cullen needs to be a little bit more straightforward and honest about this. There's another $400 million that has not been distributed this year, as was pointed out to Mr. Regan.
So the program is operating. It's operating effectively, and he needs to understand that.
Conservative
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
There was no order in that. That was simply a point of view.
So when we try to explain to our constituents, Ms. Buckley, whether they can gain access to this program, they cannot.
Director General, Office of Energy Efficiency, Department of Natural Resources
Mr. Chair, I would like to be extremely clear.
The program is not taking any new applicants. That is very clear.
The program will continue to pay funds for the coming year to existing applicants. That is very clear.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Right. For anybody who is showing up now, it's too late. It's been cancelled as far as they're concerned.
Did you talk to the provinces before making this decision?
Director General, Office of Energy Efficiency, Department of Natural Resources
We work very closely with the provinces. We have many avenues of consultation and discussion with them. Once the decision was made, we let them know as quickly as possible.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I'm assuming that's after it was announced on the website.
Director General, Office of Energy Efficiency, Department of Natural Resources
No.
Director General, Office of Energy Efficiency, Department of Natural Resources
We talked to them before it was announced on the website.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
What was the response coming from your provincial colleagues, if you could characterize it?
Director General, Office of Energy Efficiency, Department of Natural Resources
Provincial colleagues who deliver similar programs understand the requirements to manage within budgetary requirements.
Certainly there was disappointment that it was not continuing, but there was also understanding, as many of our provincial programs have experienced the same uptake in demand and they've had to manage their budgets appropriately.
Mr. Chair, I might add a very important point. They were extremely thankful and grateful that we would continue to manage the infrastructure of the intake so that they would not have to replicate that in 12 instances on their own.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Just to get some global context again, because I think it's important for folks to understand what other countries are up to, the United Kingdom has set itself a goal of retrofitting all homes, 100% of stock, by 2030. Are you aware of this program?
Director General, Office of Energy Efficiency, Department of Natural Resources
Yes.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
We're looking at 5%. Is that right, from your earlier testimony?
Director General, Office of Energy Efficiency, Department of Natural Resources
My comment was that the eco-ENERGY retrofit home incentive program will be addressing 5% of the domestic stock, but that does not mean that's the only effort this government is taking to encourage retrofits in the existing housing stock.
We have information, we have rating systems and labelling that my colleague from the Union des consommateurs was talking about that also bring awareness to consumers of the benefits of energy efficiency.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Does the government have any national goals? The U.K. has set out a very public goal of 100% of all stock by 2030, with interim targets along the way. Does the Canadian government have any such goals?
Director General, Office of Energy Efficiency, Department of Natural Resources
Yes, the Government of Canada has, as I'm sure you're aware, greenhouse gas emission targets for 2020 and 2050, and the actions we take on energy efficiency support those overall greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
So the answer is, no, we don't have a retrofit goal. We don't have a percentage of housing stock in Canada goal of 10% or 15% or 100% or any percentage?
Director General, Office of Energy Efficiency, Department of Natural Resources
No, the Government of Canada does not have a specific goal of that nature.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you.
We'll go to Mr. Allen for a couple of questions.
Go ahead, please.
Conservative
Mike Allen Conservative Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Buckley, I want to thank you for your comments with respect to the program management side of it. I think it's a prudent thing. I guess you could go on offering any program at any rate at any amount of money, assuming you want to take a party political position of raising taxes. I suppose you could possibly do that. That's not where we're going to go.
Having said that, have you done any analysis with respect to the impact of what the home renovation tax credit last year and some of the stacking provisions might have had on demand for the program? That's my first question.
The second question is that you talked about getting your weekly statistics on the program. What are those statistics? Are they related to demand in the program? Are they related to greenhouse gas emissions saved? Where does that information come from?
Director General, Office of Energy Efficiency, Department of Natural Resources
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I got the first question and I'll answer that, but I didn't catch the beginning of your second question, so I'm sorry, I'll have to ask you to repeat that.
On the first question, we can see from the take-up statistics—we track them weekly, daily, on this program—the impact of the home renovation tax credit. You can see an increase in uptake once the home renovation tax credit was introduced. That was the same time we had an increase in our grant, so the two are commingling and you can't pull one out versus the other.
I don't have those particular statistics with me, but I can share them with the committee if that would be of interest to the committee. We can show you what the tracking looks like when the home renovation tax credit came in. It was quite significant, the increase in intake.
I'm sorry, what was the beginning of your second question?