Natural Resources committee  Thank you very much. Hello. It is a great pleasure and a real honour to have the opportunity to address the committee on this topic today. First, I would like to tell you a little about our company. SES Consulting is based in Vancouver, and we have about 30 employees. We provid

Natural Resources committee  I would disagree somewhat with the notion that businesses will do it anyway because it's a good opportunity. There are a bunch of restrictions in the system. Some businesses, especially small businesses, can make easy decisions like that. We notice, especially with some large org

Natural Resources committee  Sure. Very quickly I'll say that for things like a two-year payback, if it's a really, really obvious opportunity, it's very easy without any incentive. Once you get into the eight- or nine-year range, we find that gives a lot of businesses pause, and if incentives can bring that

Natural Resources committee  There are different ways. In B.C., most of the incentives we have are utility-based, so ultimately it's the ratepayers who pay for those incentives, the argument being similar to the one the gentlemen joining us made, that it's often cheaper to buy energy efficiency through incen

Natural Resources committee  Certainly, I think that's the case. I think it's a matter of expediency. By incenting things like energy managers, I think you speed up that cycle greatly. To allow those conversations to take place naturally and to develop in the market with their own momentum.... Businesses, es

Natural Resources committee  As I said, my experience is in mainly the commercial and institutional sectors. It tends to be with municipalities, universities and commercial office buildings, which are less easy to relocate than is a manufacturing facility. I could certainly see how that would play a role in

Natural Resources committee  In terms of market theory, making information transparent helps people make better decisions in a marketplace. I think that's one piece of information that's not always transparent right now. I think that bringing some of that energy performance data to the light of day and makin

Natural Resources committee  The labelling program is a federal initiative, I believe, but states and local governments reference it in their legislation. I'm not an Australian policy expert, so I don't know all the ins and outs of how they've used the program. I do know that they report that about 82% of th

Natural Resources committee  I was very happy to hear the gentlemen from Ontario, the Independent Electricity System Operator, say they are supporting a similar program here in Ontario. I think the model we have in B.C., quite frankly, works quite well. The utilities basically pay part of the salary of the

Natural Resources committee  Certainly. Yes, we don't hire exclusively from programs like that out of UBC and BCIT, but I actually would say the majority of our staff do come through those programs. We tend to hire new graduates for the simple reason that there are not a lot of people with experience in the

Natural Resources committee  Yes.

Natural Resources committee  I've done some committee work with the Standards Association to support some of the codes and standards that back up the step codes. I think it will do great things for energy efficiency. Unfortunately, I see it as a tool mainly for new buildings and new construction. It's less a

Natural Resources committee  I think there are a few ways that could be approached. The traditional energy audits tend to be fairly intense undertakings, especially the ones that are usually funded by utility programs. These will often be $5,000, $10,000 or $20,000 studies. They require a significant amount

Natural Resources committee  Maybe I should clarify my comments. Really what I was intending to say is that building codes do get thrown around a lot, in some respects, as a good regulatory mechanism. Obviously, that opinion is not shared. The point I really wanted to make is that, actually, for existing bui

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. I assume you're referring to the B.C. carbon tax in your question. Really, the impact the carbon tax has had is.... Our electricity is largely carbon-free in B.C. It's a very small footprint. With natural gas, obviously, it's much more significant. For the last almos