Natural Resources committee  Well, it's certainly not cheaper to leave all your appliances on.

Natural Resources committee  That's right. No, in fact, one of the particular initiatives that the Europeans have been talking about is finding a way to reduce the consumption on or outright ban standby power on all equipment. In order to have it come on instantly when you push the button, it's quietly working in the background; a little light is always on.

Natural Resources committee  I can't give you an encyclopedic list of what they are or aren't doing. I guess what I would say is there are an awful lot of areas in which there are federal–provincial–territorial and industry collaboratives at work. The provinces have shown good leadership in areas near and dear to their hearts.

Natural Resources committee  I just have a quick supplement to that. I think the notion that electrical space heating is purely baseboard, of course, is incorrect. It's widespread and speaks to my earlier comment that builders loved it because it was cheap to put in; you slap them in the rooms, and each room is controllable.

Natural Resources committee  As I mentioned earlier, I certainly believe that codes and standards are the way to drive substantial step-wise change into consuming products. Lighting is an area that our industry has made a key focus. The previous witnesses testified to the lighting initiative that the federal government, together with the provinces, territories, and industry are working aggressively to move forward on.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you for your question. I think my answer is very similar to Mr. Cleland's. Every lost electron represents money; therefore, the companies are extremely focused on being efficient in terms of the transmission, the generation, and the distribution of electricity. That is not to say that the systems, the transmission systems and the distribution systems, are as efficient as they can be made.

Natural Resources committee  Perhaps I can start. I'm sure Mike also has some thoughts on it. I think the federal government clearly would look first and foremost to those programs that would have a national application or national impact. Areas that have been mentioned several times and are often undervalued--they just don't seem particularly exciting--are codes and standards.

Natural Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the invitation. I will make my remarks in English, and I'd be happy to take questions in either language. The Canadian Electricity Association is, as many of you know, the national voice of the electricity sector in Canada. Our members represent the full value chain from production through to delivery to the customer.

Industry committee  The answer is yes, there will be a schedule of financial penalties, and there are other mechanisms that are also being used.

Industry committee  That's a good question. I think the story is actually a very positive one in terms of what has been accomplished. To begin with, the entire incident was taken apart in great detail and lessons were learned from it. Ironically, some very simple things were found--things like tree trimming.

Industry committee  I think it's about expectations. When the industry was faced with the possibility of electricity deregulation, the question was why we would want to do that. If you couldn't tell people that it was because the price was going to come down, it didn't fly. We had relatively low prices, so why would we experiment in Canada?

Industry committee  Electricity is not set by supply and demand per se. The prices are generally set by provincial regulatory bodies in virtually all provinces except Alberta. Ontario is a hybrid market, but certainly in Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, etc., all of the electricity prices are set by regulators.

Industry committee  Yes, fundamentally the steps that have been taken have certainly been helpful in addressing the investment climate, and that's what we've been on about at some length. But there's always room for improvement. That's why the CCA rate discussion is important in terms of incenting specific investment.

Industry committee  Yes. We too have had some benefit in moving our capital cost rate from 4% to 8%. When we look at the United States, they're higher than that. We would like to see basic infrastructure go from 8% to 12%, but we also have some targeted asks that would help advance energy efficiency, and in those areas we're looking for basic....

Industry committee  Absolutely. We've been working hard for a long time to try to get a framework. By that--we want to be very clear--we don't mean a rigid, top-down kind of plan. What we're talking about is a clear understanding of where the federal government's policy envelope sits and where the provincial energy policy envelopes sit, so we can examine them and make sure they're coherent in terms of a broad energy policy.