Madam Chair, honourable members, thank you very much for inviting me to appear before the committee to offer evidence in support of the committee's study.

After briefly describing my background, I will seek to aid the committee's study by addressing three subjects: the definition of the clean energy sector, the direct and indirect costs of the green initiatives and related measures, and the experience to date concerning the income and employment benefits of the environmental and clean technology products sector.

My professional experience has been almost entirely in analyzing and advising on the public policy issues related to energy, environment and transportation. I spent 37 years in the federal public service, serving under 22 different Liberal and Conservative ministers. I spent the first 10 years of my career in the foreign service with postings to Caracas, Venezuela, and Washington, D.C. After that, I served in five other departments, mostly in economic policy areas.

I retired as director general, environmental affairs, at Transport Canada in 2006, and subsequently, spent 10 years as a consultant to federal and provincial government departments on energy, environment and transportation issues.

I am sure the committee is aware that the subject it has agreed to study is very broad in scope. It's important to define what these practices, or more precisely, activities and investments involve.

Statistics Canada has offered one definition in the statistical reports it has issued since 2007 of the environmental and clean technology products sector. The sector includes companies that are engaged in producing a wide range of products and services. The products include electricity produced from renewable energy sources and nuclear power generation; wind, solar and hydro generation products; equipment for spill response and remediation; biofuels; and others. The services include waste management and remediation services; environmental assessment services; energy efficiency consulting services; engineering and construction services; and others.

The sector, thus, includes almost everything that reduces the environmental effects of economic activity.

Much of the clean technology goods subsector relates to the production of renewable energy equipment and electricity generated by wind, solar and biomass energy. It's important to understand the costs of these goods. I cannot possibly do justice to that subject in a five-minute statement. I will say that the capital and operating costs of wind and solar energy generation represent only a small share of the cost that they impose on the electricity generation and transmission system.

With respect to the direct cost to consumers, the committee should consider Ontario's experience following the passage of the Green Energy Act of 2009. That legislation authorized Ontario's independent electricity systems operator to offer feed-in tariffs at above market rates for renewable energy generation. Further, the province guaranteed those rates for the life of the contracts, generally 20 years, and required that the renewables production be granted “first to the grid” rights over less expensive sources of generation.

The auditor general of Ontario, in her 2015 report, found that from 2004 to 2014, the portion of residential and small commercial customers' bills covering electricity generation costs increased by 80% from 5¢ per kilowatt hour to 9¢ per kilowatt hour. The overall cost of electricity to consumers increased by 56%, from $12.2 billion in 2004 to $18.9 billion in 2014. Between 2010 and 2016, monthly electricity bills, including taxes in major Canadian cities, increased by an average of $37.60 per kilowatt hour. During the same period, electricity bills in Toronto rose more than twice as much.

The annual average household cost of electricity in Ontario rose by 120% from 2009 to 2016. According to Scott Luft, an expert in Ontario electricity markets, the cost of Green Energy Act contracting is now over $4 billion a year, or $80 billion—

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