Environment committee  Thank you. My name is Thomas Hewitt. I'm coming to this from a very different perspective. I'm a local builder. I built net zero homes, and my company is called Netzero Construction. Before that, I spent almost a decade working in solar power, mostly under the Fit program in Ont

Environment committee  Absolutely.

Environment committee  It's really an interesting question. I haven't built up north, but I can say that from what I've seen, anything that is active requires maintenance. For example, there was a lot of buzz about geothermal and solar thermal—and even solar photoelectric panels, which I do a lot of—al

Environment committee  Absolutely—and in terms of cost, too.

Environment committee  Just as a point of clarification, I'm talking about high-performance windows for custom homes, which is very different from a budget window for a place in—

Environment committee  That's right.

Environment committee  I do indeed.

Environment committee  I definitely applaud programs like that. In Ontario—

Environment committee  I absolutely believe that if we raise the standards on these items, we'll get better products at similar prices to what we're already getting. That's the bottom line. There are going to be increases as we move on in certain things. For example, HRVs are now required in homes, but

Environment committee  It's HRV.

Environment committee  It is, but there are problems with it. A lot of it, especially in the built environment, has to do with service and maintenance and such things. For example, in the case of windows, a local manufacturer can send you a replacement window sash in a matter of days, in contrast to ou

Environment committee  It's definitely more challenging. Yes, we are sourcing stuff from all over the world. Luckily we have the web, so we basically go online and find the best products in the world and then track down a way to get them into the country. Right now it is mostly through intermediaries,

Environment committee  A number of them have been attempted here in the region, and every one has not been a success. The costs have been more than that of starting over. When we're talking renovations, there are two types: major renovations where you're going down to the studs and things like this.

Environment committee  I believe that in Europe, there was a niche community, just like we have, mostly of custom homes. People were voluntarily looking for these products. The companies developed the technology to produce these products. The government then mandated a progressive increase in energy ef

Environment committee  I absolutely believe that's the case, although it needs to be done in steps and to be phased in. We just won't have the production of those components if we choose to do it....