Ontario’s Introduction of Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking May Be First Step in Further Plans to Prescribe Water and Energy Use

The new Ontario regulation Reporting of Energy Consumption and Water Use has officially become law. The regulation outlines what building owners and utilities must do to comply with Ontario’s Large Building Energy and Water Reporting and Bench marking (EWRB) initiative.

The purpose of the initiative is to gather comparative data concerning energy and water use in order to develop policies to increase efficiencies and to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The regulation will take effect on July 1, 2017.

The regulation requires owners of large buildings (among several other sectors) to report their buildings energy, water and greenhouse gas emission data to the Ministry of energy on an annual basis. Electricity, natural gas and water distributors will be required to provide the owner of a prescribed property who is required to report under the regulation, upon request, with aggregated information as to how much electricity, natural gas or water, as applicable, was used at the prescribed property during that year, including for periods during which the owner did not own the prescribed property. This includes information for reporting periods during which the current owner did not own the property.

The reporting requirement will be phased-in gradually, over a three-year period, with the first reports due July 1, 2018.

More information is available on the Ministry’s Large Building EWRB webpage at: