April 11, 2007

Well, thank you very much, Steve [Steve Stremecki, VP Retail, TIM-BR Mart Group] and also Chief Jacobs [Gibby Jacobs, Chief, Squamish Nation]. It's great to see you again. Thank you for that welcome. That was wonderful.

First of all, I've been asking my staff to do this for about almost a year and a half. We've taken office, I think, about 16 months ago, and I said you're going to get me into a building supply store. So, Steve, they finally made it happen. One of my passions when I'm at home is .... Actually, I spend a lot of time in Slegg Lumber, which is another TIM-BR Mart Store. They all know me over there. My wife cringes every time I go.

Again, this is a great place to do this. But I also — just before we get into what we want to talk about, the ecoENERGY Initiative and the specifics of that — I want to congratulate Steve and all of your TIM-BR Mart Stores on what you're going to be speaking about, which is your new EnerGrade program, which absolutely dovetails perfectly into our ecoENERGY Efficiency Initiative. Providing the resources and the training and the tools to your customers really shows how much you're engaged.

We share a common goal, and that's we want to make sure Canadians have access to the tools and the information that they need to make smart choices to help them become more energy-efficient in both their homes and in their businesses as well.

Now, it's been a priority for our government. In the budget we announced only a few weeks ago, we invested over $4.5 billion to clean our air and our water and to reduce our greenhouse gases. There was $200 million that the Prime Minister announced in our Climate Change Trust Fund. That money was specifically targeted for the Province to pursue its priorities where they think they can achieve the greatest greenhouse gas reductions.

We had other initiatives that the consumers and people across Canada and here in British Columbia will become very familiar with in the days ahead, and that's our ecoAUTO Program. That's where consumers will be able to receive up to a $2,000 grant by purchasing energy-efficient vehicles.

Let me just talk specifically about our ecoENERGY Program. Earlier this year, we announced over $2 billion in initiatives with respect to ecoENERGY. We wanted to do basically three things. We wanted to become more energy-efficient; we want to put more clean energy on the grid — that's our renewable energy component; and we want to develop cleaner technology to clean up our conventional power sources.

But today I'm going to specifically focus on the energy-efficiency component. Our ecoENERGY efficiency component, this is a practical solution there for homeowners and for businesses where they'll be able to participate in this program to make their homes more energy-efficient, which will see a direct reduction in greenhouse gases, which is very, very important.

I've said many, many times before, the largest untapped source of energy in this country — far larger than the oil sands, larger than any other source of energy — is the energy we waste each and every single day. So that's where we really focused this initiative, on how we can help people save energy.

So the program, basically, what it will be able to do is, consumers will be able to receive up to a $5,000 grant to make their homes more energy-efficient. We are very focused to ensure that this program was efficient itself, so over 90 cents of every single dollar will go directly into home retrofits. There are a number of things that will be eligible, everything from heat pumps. Something that's new is water conservation, solar water heating systems, geothermal heating systems, cooling/heating, you know, all of these will be eligible for this program.

So how does it work? That's what people want to know. Well, first of all, you're going to have to get an energy assessment. You'll be able to get that through a certified energy advisor. You can get that a number of ways. I understand the EnerGrade [a TIM-BR Mart initiative] or people here at TIM-BR Mart will provide you assistance, so that's where you get started. You can visit a TIM-BR Mart store, and they would help you find a certified energy advisor. Or you can go onto the Government of Canada Web site, nrcan.gc.ca, click on the energy efficiency link, and, again, that would help you find that energy advisor.

This energy advisor will visit you in your home. They'll sit down with you, and they'll explain to you where your home is using energy that's being wasted and what you can do to reduce that waste. The advisor will give you an idea on which upgrades would be the best for investment and what kind of grant you can expect from that. So when they come by to visit you, they'll give you a good idea of the exact type of grant that you could receive.

You know, obviously, there are larger efficient heating systems, cooling systems. There are smaller things: new windows, new doors, water-saving toilets; simple things like weatherstripping, upgrading your insulation. A programmable thermostat is remarkable. How much energy that could save by simply lowering the temperature of your home by a few degrees when you're not home or in the evenings. Those are just a few examples of the things that you can do.

Once you've received that list, you can choose what you want to do. Once the work is completed, the energy advisor will come back for a follow-up visit. They will go over the list, what you've got completed. They will give you a new energy-efficient rating on your home, and then they will help you actually submit the application for the grant.

I think this is a really important point. The greater efficiencies you achieve, the larger the grant will be. So the amount of the grant that you receive is in direct correlation to the exact work you do. I can give you a few examples on how much you could realize from this program. An ultra high-efficiency gas furnace would realize a grant of approximately $500. An EnerStar air conditioning unit would receive about a $200 grant. You could receive up to about a $500 grant to put in a solar water pre-heating system, or for something like an EnerStar front door you'd also receive a $30 grant. And those are just a few examples.

We fully expect about 140,000 Canadians right across the country to take part in this program over the next four years. That will be the equivalent of taking 175,000 motor vehicles off the road.  So we're not only reducing greenhouse gases — we're saving energy; we're helping the consumer save money; we're actually reducing smog and pollution at the same time. So we think this is very, very important. We look forward to consumers' full participation in this program.

We also wanted to expand this program to beyond homeowners. Also eligible are small- and medium-size organizations in the commercial, institutional and industrial sectors. They're also eligible to make their buildings more energy-efficient, and there are some different rules for the small business side. But, depending on the energy efficiencies realized, a single project could receive a grant of up to $50,000.

So, again, we think this is a great beginning. It's great to see that we have people like TIM-BR Mart who are doing their part, and we can dovetail and we can work together. I really believe that to succeed in all of this, it's got to be larger than government. It's got to be larger than just the consumers. We all need to work together from both the industry, from the retail to the homeowner. And by all working together we can succeed.

A few examples on how much a single home could achieve in energy efficiency. Our research shows us that a home around 25 years old can save about one-third of their energy. Now, everybody in this room knows what they pay in their hydro and their gas bills each and every month and their annual costs. It's a lot of money. Imagine if you can reduce that by up to 35%. That's significant savings.

So this is ... again, this is something we're very, very proud of. I'm pleased that the ecoENERGY Retrofit Program is open for business. We encourage people right across the country to visit their local building supply if they need more information, or go to the Government of Canada Web site. We want you to do your part. We look forward to working with you in the years ahead.

Thank you very much and thank you, Steve, for inviting us. Couldn't be a better place, right in my favorite kind of store. Thank you again.

News Release