Thank you, Minister, for being here today.
I'm just going to start with some follow-up questions. The last time you were here, I gave you three suggestions that you might want to consider in the budget. Having now seen the budget, I just wanted to follow up with those.
One is about home retrofits. We all know that energy efficiency is one of the best ways to reduce our greenhouse gas footprints in Canada. We had a very successful program here started by the Conservative government in the previous parliaments, the eco-energy retrofit program. Its last iteration had $400 million in the 2011 budget. Unfortunately it was cancelled and hasn't been brought up again by this Liberal government. First, it seemed that retrofits were kicked over to the provinces in the pan-Canadian framework, and in this budget, there's an item for $300 million that is being put down under the municipalities through the FCM.
I'm rather confused and concerned that the federal government hasn't taken it upon itself to actually do this itself. This is leadership that I think Canadians expect from the federal government. With something as serious as climate action, we really need to do things quickly and boldly. It seems that this is just another example of putting things down onto the municipalities.
I'm confused. For one thing, in the book here, it says in one place that this is to be spent in the 2018-19 fiscal year. In another place it says it's to be spent in the 2019-20 year. That's not what I'm concerned about here. It's just one more confusion.
I guess now that this money has been transferred, I assume to FCM, how long will they have to spend this? Is this a one-year pot, like the $400-million pot that the Conservatives put up? Will municipalities have to sign on individually? I don't live in a municipality. How do I access this program? If we had done it nationally, those questions would not have to be asked.