Mr. Speaker, on October 22, 2010 I put a question to the government. The question was to ask whether, during Small Business Week, the government would give consideration to restoring its home energy retrofit program to help small businesses in Edmonton and across the country. Consistent with the throne speech which was delivered in March of last year, the response by the minister was that the government was reviewing the entire suite of programs and would get back to Canadians.
Again today my question is: Why did the government kill the home energy retrofit program? This has harmed small businesses right across Canada. Will the government respond to our calls, and the calls of many across the country, to restore and extend this program? We have been waiting a year and we are looking for the answer, possibly today and hopefully in the budget.
The eco-energy retrofit program provided in the past, and could again provide: reduced energy consumption; energy cost savings including on home heating bills; reduced pollution and greenhouse gas emissions through reduced energy demand and generation; and reduced peak power needs, often the excuse for continued operation and permitting of outdated and polluting generators. It would provide reduced downloading of the rising energy generation and transmission costs to consumers, often the greatest cost.
People are concerned about the rising costs which they are attributing to expansion of renewable power. In fact, much larger costs can be attributed to the development of large generation facilities, such as coal-fired power and nuclear, and the massive transmission lines to ship that electricity across jurisdictions and into the United States. They would provide support to aboriginal communities living in substandard housing, often reliant on expensive energy sources such as oil.
A healthy sustainable economy requires supporting and incentivizing business opportunities in a wide array of sectors, not just the fossil fuel sector. Billions of dollars have been given in tax cuts and subsidies to the fossil fuel sector while the government has cut programs which have incentivized and triggered the expansion of energy efficiency businesses across the country, as has occurred around the world. Any kind of sound program for a healthy sustainable economy should include the emerging clean energy and energy efficient sectors, and must recognize the contributions these sectors can play and are playing in our economy.
As I had previously informed the House, I am proud of the burgeoning energy efficiency sector in my own riding of Edmonton—Strathcona for energy audits, energy retrofits on lighting and insulation, businesses manufacturing energy efficient equipment, businesses selling that equipment, consulting firms for retrofitting green construction, and energy efficiency financing. I am equally proud of the efforts taken by constituents, in the absence of federal action, to reduce their energy and environmental footprints. I laud particularly the efforts of my constituency and Edmonton-wide community leagues to reduce their costs to citizens by reducing their footprint and being energy efficient.
When can we expect action by the government to expedite funding for energy efficiency and to revise the national building code, one of the main measures that people are waiting for, and to put a price on carbon to trigger investment? We need equity for Canadian families and small business. There is $144 billion for corporate tax cuts, but nothing this year for energy retrofit companies.
In the vacuum of government action to deliver consultation on a clean energy future, as committed to in Cancun, I will be sponsoring a dialogue myself in my--