Ontario’s Ministry of Energy is proposing a regulation, under the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998. To implement an energy and water reporting and benchmarking (EWRB) regulatory requirement for commercial, multi-unit residential and some industrial buildings 50,000 square feet and above. Most industrial buildings, i.e. manufacturing facilities, and all agricultural facilities will be excluded.

EWRB involves the ongoing review of a building’s energy and water consumption to determine how the building’s energy and water use performance is changing over time in comparison to itself and to other similar buildings. Under the EWRB initiative, building/property owners would be required to report energy, water, and GHG emissions, as well as other building-characteristic information on an annual basis.

A three-year phase-in period is proposed - beginning with reports for the largest buildings to be submitted by July 1, 2017. The reports would be subject to public disclosure (on Ontario’s Open Data website) one year after initial reporting year for each of the three phases. Some data will not be disclosed publicly (e.g. site/source energy use, total GHG emissions and gross floor area on a building by building basis).

Building owners would be required to confirm - using the Energy Star Portfolio Manager program - that the reported data is accurate. Verification by a third party would not be required.