Finance committee  Thank you, Chair and members. It's a delight to be here this afternoon. My name is Brent Gilmour. I'm the executive director of Quality Urban Energy Systems of Tomorrow, QUEST. QUEST is a national, non-profit organization that was established in 2007. It is a non-member-based or

Finance committee  QUEST recognizes that communities across Canada have a challenge in how they might be investing in those bonds if they have already utilized their existing capital resources, or as in one case, potentially, their assets, in terms of what's available from reserves. That stated, on

Finance committee  Overall, the direction of QUEST is to help manage and more effectively use our energy resources. Drawing on local alternative resources, which is what's encouraged, is all part of that. QUEST would support that. We also recognize that no matter where you are drawing your energy f

Finance committee  Thank you. I appreciate those examples. They're very relevant. It's not always about access to capital; it's also just about awareness. One of the things I think we've all recognized, whether it's in the case of our colleagues or whatever organization you're dealing with, we al

Finance committee  I think we've started, and I think you'll hear that from some of your other members who were presenting here, such as the Canadian Gas Association and the Canadian Electricity Association. There is a new partnership, and that's what QUEST was set up to do, to help bring relations

Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much. We really appreciate that. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to present on what QUEST—Quality Urban Energy Systems of Tomorrow—is doing to advance energy and innovation. My name is Brent Gilmour. I am the executive director. I am joine

Natural Resources committee  We recently hosted an international conference, so directly on that point, we had representation from Alaska, from China, and from of course Scandinavia, particularly Sweden. The point here is that the innovations going on there are reflective of what we're seeing here in the se

Natural Resources committee  I think what you're seeing now is a lot more focus on waste-to-energy and how you can apply that. The conversations, particularly for communities, were on landfill; gas capture was another big area, particularly because of the stress that communities are facing where they can't f

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. One of the key aspects of that road map that was endorsed unanimously by the Council of Energy and Mines Ministers in their presentation of it at the rollout in 2015 was the actual application of what people had encouraged and thought was beneficial from both a feder

Natural Resources committee  Exactly, and that was one of the underscoring aspects encouraged by the road map: to understand what that impact might be.

Natural Resources committee  Sure. Thank you very much. In terms of the total number of communities engaged in the application of integrated community solutions, our hope is to have all of them, and there are 5,400 across Canada. The intent, though, is that you could assume that every major city over 50,000

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. I'll start with the last question first. I think what we're seeing across Canada is it's a long game, but we're catching up. I think that's the underlying theme that you're hearing from all industry, and hopefully that has been presented to the committees. They're now

Natural Resources committee  Just to follow up on that, there are opportunities, and I think this is what the committee would like to hear about. There are organizations like BRE from England. We've heard Mr. Gora refer to England quite a bit. They are interested in coming over to Canada and setting up an

Natural Resources committee  Good afternoon, everyone. I appreciate the opportunity to address the standing committee. My name is Brent Gilmour. I'm the executive director of QUEST, Quality Urban Energy Systems of Tomorrow. Across Canada, communities account for 60% of our energy use and over half of our g

Natural Resources committee  When I look at the definition of renewable energy, it would, in context, be all sources that would actually contribute to the goal you're trying to achieve. I wouldn't start putting barriers or constraints on what's in or what's out. I think it's about what you're trying to achie