As someone committed to advancing energy performance in Canada, we wanted to alert you to a critical regulatory issue that could set back our progress on energy efficiency.
Just this week, we were alerted to concerning language in the proposed Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act regulations under Bill C-5. These regulations could undermine the effectiveness of the federal Energy Efficiency Act and Regulations by allowing products that meet a province’s own energy efficiency standard—regardless of how weak—to be shipped and sold across Canada, bypassing stronger federal requirements.
Why this matters:
The draft regulations for Bill C-5 define “comparable” standards as those that “address the same aspect of a good or service and are intended to achieve a similar objective.”
As proposed, this could allow outdated or weaker provincial standards to be considered as equivalent to federal ones—opening the door to inefficient products being sold across Canada if they meet even minimal provincial standards.
For example, Manitoba’s outdated 2009 92% efficiency standard for residential gas furnaces could be considered “comparable” —even though it no longer meets today’s federal energy efficiency standard of 95%.
This could:
- Incentivize manufacturers to base operations in provinces with weaker standards.
- Encourage a race to the bottom, as provinces lower their own standards to attract business.
- Undermine three decades of federal progress on improving appliance and equipment efficiency.
The Privy Council is consulting on these regulations until August 22nd.
Our team at Efficiency Canada is submitting a formal comment, and we invite you to join us. We know this is last minute but even a few extra voices will help!
Address your submission to:
Intergovernmental Affairs – Internal Trade
Privy Council Office
85 Sparks Street, Room 1000
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A3
Email: internaltrade-commerceinterieur@pco-bcp.gc.ca
Key points to include in your submission:
- While we support the Act’s aim of reducing federal barriers to interprovincial trade and labour mobility, we oppose doing so by rendering ineffective the federal Energy Efficiency Act and Regulations’ power to restrict inefficient, federally non-compliant appliances and equipment from being shipped between provinces.
- If the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act proceeds as proposed, several outdated provincial efficiency standards across Canada would regain relevance, since they could be recognized as comparable to the federal requirements. This could entice manufacturers to move to provinces with weaker than federal minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) as they would no longer have to meet federal standards to export their products to other provinces. It could also encourage provinces to lower their provincial MEPS, in a race-to-the-bottom, to attract manufacturing.
- In response to the Questions to guide input from interested parties: 2. Criteria for “comparable” requirements: A provincial energy efficiency regulation should only be deemed comparable to the federal energy efficiency regulation if the provincial MEPS is the same or higher than the federal MEPS for any appliances or equipment that are covered by Canada’s Energy Efficiency Regulations.
- Canada’s Energy Efficiency Regulations are a powerful tool for lowering energy costs for consumers and businesses and freeing up domestic clean energy that can be used to electrify other end-uses. To date (from their inception in 1995 to the recently published Amendment 18), by 2030, they are projected to produce energy efficiency gains equivalent to powering all ~16 million existing Canadian households for 5.5 years. This energy savings improves the productivity of our economy, by requiring lower energy inputs per unit of economic activity.
- We strongly encourage the Privy Council to protect consumers and businesses from the higher energy costs and greenhouse gases associated with inefficient appliances and equipment by preventing the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act, as part of Bill C-5, from weakening Canada’s Energy Efficiency Act and Regulations.