OTTAWA — According to Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the Honourable Joe Oliver, minister of Natural Resources, announced that the government of Canada is investing $78 million over the next two years to create jobs in the energy sector and save Canadian homeowners money while improving energy efficiency.

“Canadians gave our government a strong mandate to complete our economic recovery and focus on continued job growth,” said Oliver, speaking in Ottawa. “Support for energy efficiency is an effective way to both create high-quality jobs for Canadians and save homeowners money.”

The next phase of Canada’s Economic Action Plan promotes job creation through investments in energy efficiency and clean energy technology. According to NRCan, the ecoENERGY Efficiency initiatives will help improve energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, and save money for Canadians and Canadian businesses. These initiatives are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately four megatons, which is the equivalent of removing over one million cars from the road.

The ecoENERGY Efficiency initiatives will implement additional standards, regulations, and other cost-effective measures to help Canadians use energy more efficiently. New labeling, benchmarking, training, and information sharing tools will help Canadians improve energy performance in all sectors of the economy.

These initiatives will achieve a number of objectives, such as establishing a more stringent National Energy Code for Buildings with provinces and territories, the implementation of new energy management system standards for industrial facilities and upgrade new home energy rating systems to adopt the latest technologies.

Publication date: 11/21/2011