Thanks very much.
Many of my remarks are based upon our recent experience working with a number of governments and utilities in Atlantic Canada on a project we call the Atlantic Canada energy data roadmap. Basically, the situation across Canada today is that Canada is very good at documenting the production of energy. We know what a well is producing. It's reported. We know when gas is exported to the United States. We keep track of all of those things very well.
What we're not very good at is documenting how we use energy. That's the real gap today. It's fragmented, incomplete, and in fact, even where we are successful in capturing energy data, those datasets can't talk to each other. We're not using common definitions. We're going to a lot of work to collect things for one purpose and we can't use them for another.
We focused on what the energy information needs are for tomorrow. We need to have data that has a lot more information attached to it: information about when it's used, where it's used, and what kind of a structure it is used in. If it's for heating a building, we need to know about that. We need to look at the various building types. We want to have much more information on whether it's energy being used in a home that is two storeys and built after the war or before the war because this starts giving us information on what we need to do about that building. We also need to have more timely energy data reporting.
Often datasets in this country are reported up to five years behind. In a rapidly changing world, we need more accountability and better decisions. Five years is too late. We also need to know more about what energy is doing and the energy sector is doing, in terms of socio-economic impact.
A number of things are really driving the change today. They are obvious. We need more data for climate change management, understanding, and accountability. Efficiency programs need to know where we are to understand how much change we've introduced. Communities—and everyone—else are looking for more accountability, so they can celebrate progress and understand where we're going.
All of this flowed into the Atlantic Canada energy data roadmap. Four governments in Atlantic Canada supported the work we did, either morally or in actual cash, as did utilities and the Government of Canada through ACOA. We had a lot of advice and a lot of experience in the region from academics, from people who are involved in utilities and the energy sector, and from ordinary citizens who were just concerned. We had forums in four provinces. We also received a lot of advice from outside the region including from B.C., which has done a lot of work in this area, as well as Ontario and the U.K.
We came up with a vision for an energy system over the next five to 10 years that would end up being a much more robust system that could do many more things and help us make better decisions.
We found that what we needed to address through the process was that we must be able to make better, more thoughtful decisions. Having the data is having the evidence. Just think about it that way. Data is really the evidence that will allow you to say that this was a good decision and look at what happened or, we think this will give us a better decision, based on our experience and the data we've collected in similar situations.
Privacy is paramount. Nobody needs to have that deeply embedded, but I want you to know it was one of our founding principles. When we looked at these systems, privacy had to be paramount.
Also, the consumers have the right to decide what happens to their data. It may be inside some secure place where personal information is managed, analyzed, and associated with other useful business, but if it's to be put out in a public domain, the consumer needs to make the decision whether that's going to happen. We need new tools to enable them to make that decision in an informed, secure, and simple manner.
Technology solutions need to be developed and there needs to be agreement across the country to have those common standards, so that we don't duplicate by collecting information for rate-making and then doing it again for another purpose for energy information. Collect it once and collect it at the same standard all the time. We need technology that's going to improve the operations of those energy providers. All this data is useful for them in making their planning decisions and their operational decisions for the benefit of the ratepayers. There also needs to be national and regional co-operation.
We looked at the balance between making sure that there is privacy for the individual user and that we get enough information and manage to collect it and report it in a useful manner. We came up with some principles and tools that will help government and society make that decision and maintain that balance.
One of the big things that the governments will have to do is make a decision as to what degree all of this needs to be embedded in law. There is a lot that can be done in a voluntary society, where individuals and organizations can come together and agree to provide information on a voluntary basis. However, we're dealing with a very complex agenda. The more parts of this country that we have involved and the more players that we have, the more difficult it becomes for many of them to say that they are going to voluntarily provide their information and be at a competitive disadvantage. Putting it in law may be the way to level that playing field. When the legislation does happen, if it does happen, it needs to be a staged implementation, so that we can make sure that people are able to upgrade their information systems on their own upgrade cycle, and so that it's a cost-effective and efficient way.
There need to be new applications developed. Apps can give much more useful information to consumers in a simple way.
I spent a good bit of time working with the Province of Nova Scotia in energy. I had a team of policy analysts and a bunch of engineers. The engineers had all the facts, but they needed to be able to communicate them to others. We have the technology and the tools to have that happen.
We're looking at a world where some of this is going to have to be organized, particularly on a national level, but even at a regional level there are all sorts of players here. There are utilities. There are governments. There are efficiency agencies. There are lots of organizations that have experience in managing data. At the end, we determined that there may be many appropriate roles, but first of all, there has to be trust. Whatever organizational structure, existing or new, has to have everything in place to say that I'm dealing with data here that sometimes is sensitive and therefore, it needs to be a trusted organization.
The outcome from all of this will hopefully be a world where the rights and obligations of everybody, when handling energy data, are fully recognized, respected, and managed through regulatory processes or government legislation. There has to be that flexible, staged implementation to take into account different readiness. We have to have governments and regulators doing that standardization. That is absolutely critical.
I was speaking to some colleagues in Yukon and Prince Edward Island yesterday. They were saying that the small provinces in this country have different needs. They need to be respected, in terms of the challenges that they have and the different circumstances when it comes to standards, and those standards have to be developed with their buy-in as well.
We also need everybody doing the most efficient thing and often that will be delegation to others, rather than trying to do it all yourself.
In closing, I just want to note the federal role. It must be obvious to you. I know that there have been others who have come up and spoken on this agenda in the last little while. A number of federal agencies have a long track record and have done a tremendous job in collecting data in the past.
When we come to the new energy needs, there has been a statement through energy ministers that they wanted it to be a collaborative process with both provinces and the Government of Canada involved. There is work under way now. I've been asked to build on the work that we did on the Atlantic Canada energy data roadmap and work with the provinces and the Government of Canada to identify the capacities and things that are being done on energy information today to help the ministers understand where they might be able to direct what the needs are for the future. I'm helping them do that. The outcome should be timely, detailed, and useful.
I want to really emphasize at the end the need to do useful things to help people make better decisions.
Thank you very much.