January 22, 2007

Thank you, Gary [Goodyear], for that generous introduction. I'm pleased to be here. I also want to thank Steve Davies, the President of Ecologix Heating Technologies, and the employees that helped make this happen. It is a privilege to be given this opportunity.

Gary mentioned that I'm a carpenter. I'm also fascinated with the latest technologies. Steve, what you're doing here is impressive to say the least. These are the kinds of technologies we need to see, and this is exactly where we need to be going to protect our environment.

I'd also like to acknowledge another colleague of mine, Harold Albrecht. Harold is a Member of Parliament from Kitchener—Conestoga. It's great to have you here, Harold. We've talked in the House many times, Harold and I.

Last March, Gary filled my shoes by attending the launch of Ecologix's Zone Comfort System. The Zone Comfort System is just one example of why Ecologix is a perfect place to ramp up our new ecoENERGY Initiatives, which we launched this week. I haven't had the opportunity to talk about all three parts together, and I'm looking forward to doing that today.

ecoENERGY Initiatives

We took office almost exactly one year ago. We said we'd deliver on our promises. We said we'd do what's practical, what's achievable, and what's affordable. And that's just what we're doing.

This is the first government in Canadian history that has ever undertaken to regulate greenhouse gases and pollutants in every single sector—from oil and gas to the automotive industry. We launched our Chemical Management Plan. We're beginning our efforts to regulate the content of renewable fuels. And those are just a few of the areas we've got started on.

This brings me to our announcement of our ecoENERGY Initiatives. This is about energy supplies. Energy production is the backbone of our economy. It gives us a great quality of life. It's important to know, however, that energy production and use are responsible for 85 percent of the emissions and pollutants we put up in the atmosphere. We have to do a better job. Canada is an emerging energy superpower. Our challenge is to become a clean energy superpower.

Our ecoENERGY Initiatives have been designed to meet this challenge. We are focusing on coordinated measures to help us deliver these results. When we took office over a year ago, we found more than a hundred climate change programs. They lacked focus and direction. Some weren't achieving results. We studied these programs and looked for ways to get the best gains for the investment, the best results for the environment.

We found that there were basically three areas we needed to look at. First, we needed to use science and technology to clean up our conventional energy. Second, we needed to put a lot more clean energy on the grid and use renewable energy. Third, we needed to look at energy efficiency. The largest untapped source of energy in this country—larger than the oilsands—is the energy we waste.

ecoENERGY Technology Initiative

Let me take this opportunity to recap our ecoENERGY Initiatives. First, there's our ecoENERGY Technology Initiative. Minister Baird, Minister of the Environment, and I, announced a targeted investment of $230 million for clean energy technologies. This research money will be used on things like clean coal technology. The projects we're working on today will allow us to remove 90 percent of the pollutants we put up in the atmosphere from burning coal. If we combine that with carbon capture and storage, we can take out nearly all of the CO2 gases. And this is just the beginning. Scientists working in this area believe we can get to zero emissions. This is something we're quite keen on. We're targeting this research money towards the areas where we can make the greatest difference.

I had the opportunity to travel to China last fall. China is putting 1,000 megawatts of new energy on the grid every couple of weeks. A thousand megawatts is a lot of power, more than a nuclear reactor, the equivalent of four or five coal-fired generating stations. Eighty percent of their energy is produced from coal. If we develop clean-coal technology here in Canada and make it available to China, we'll be doing more for the global environment than anyone could imagine.

ecoENERGY Renewable Initiative

Second, we launched our ecoENERGY Renewable Initiative. We have committed to put 4,000 megawatts of clean energy on the grid. We're seeing a lot of expansion in wind, tidal, solar and small-scale hydro power, and biomass. All of these are eligible. This has not been done before. How much is 4,000 megawatts? It's enough power to provide electricity for a million homes. It's the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road, along with all their pollutants and emissions.

Last Friday in Victoria, I was pleased to announce our ecoENERGY Renewable Initiative with the Prime Minister. We announced our first tidal turbine. We installed it a few months ago off the coast of Vancouver Island. This tidal turbine is anchored to the ocean floor, and it generates electricity 16 hours a day. The blades work in both directions of the tides. Think of it as a big windmill turned upside down in the water and anchored to the ocean floor. This is new. We've seen experiments from the last 10 or 15 years on the rising of the tide, but this project makes use of tidal currents.

We are just beginning to learn how to harness the enormous potential of energy in the ocean. We're quite excited by this, and our Government has committed $1.5 billion toward putting this energy on the grid. This technology causes no emissions.

ecoENERGY Efficiency Initiative

Our last announcement, which we made at the Metro Toronto Home Show, was our ecoENERGY Efficiency Initiative. This is germane to all employees at Ecologix. We looked into previous energy-efficiency programs and found that about 50 cents on every dollar was spent on energy audits. Of those who had the audits done, only 30 percent actually did any renovations. Seventy percent did nothing. So we asked ourselves how we could get people to be more interested in energy-efficient heating systems, and how people could best reduce greenhouse gases in the environment.

We designed an initiative for investing $300 million for homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient. To participate, they're going to have to put up a little money at the front end. We want them to take the challenge and agree to make those gains. Homeowners will be eligible for a grant. How much they receive will depend on the efficiency that can be realized. They will receive 25 percent more than any other energy efficiency program the government has ever offered.

Why is it so important to engage the consumer? Quite often we're critical of the oil and gas companies. We see on the news how oil and gas production causes vast amounts of greenhouse gases and pollutants. This is all true, and our Government has committed to regulating all of these industries.

However, we mustn't forget that we use every single drop of oil they produce to drive our cars, heat our homes and produce electricity to run our gadgets. There's nothing wrong with these gadgets. We like them. But we need to do a better job.

I'm asking Canadians, consumers, homeowners in every corner of this country to take up this challenge to see what you can do to make our homes more energy efficient.

Conclusion

Let me conclude by explaining that our ecoENERGY Initiatives, together with the complementary support of our Clean Air Act, will deliver real results. All three of our initiatives are focused on achieving the greatest reductions in greenhouse gases and pollution.

I want to compliment you on the work you do here. You are leaders in what you do. Steve and I had a chance to chat briefly about your work, and I'm fascinated by it. It's the commitment of employees that makes it all happen. Imagine, if everyone does their part and becomes more energy efficient, we can have an enormous impact collectively.

Again, I want to thank you, Steve, for inviting us here to Ecologix. It's a great place to talk about the ecoENERGY Initiatives we launched this week, a $2 billion investment by the Government of Canada. We look forward to working with you to maximize our gains in the years to come.

Thank you.