Regional Champions
To advance the mission of energy efficiency, Efficiency Canada appreciates that local connections across Canada must be developed and nurtured. Regional Champions are volunteer leaders that facilitate these connections between sector members, local advocates, government officials, and more. Regional Champions connect every two months to share local knowledge on key concerns of our sector, celebrate wins and discuss ways to further support regional initiatives. Our combined efforts will develop a stronger network of energy efficiency advocates, from coast to coast to coast.
Our Regional Champions

David Pickup
Alberta
David's bio
David leads the post-secondary Energy Management Diploma at Norquest College. He has nine years of experience planning, analysing, and executing clean energy initiatives, including quantifying opportunities and designing strategies for clients of Dunsky Energy + Climate Advisors, leading corporate planning at Energy Efficiency Alberta, and heading up policy advocacy and analysis for the UK’s solar industry. He is excited to be developing the next generation of the industry and passionate about the power of the energy efficiency as a climate solution. Connect with David on LinkedIn or by email.
Tanya Ratzlaff
British Columbia
Tanya's bio
Tanya is the Senior Manager of Strategic Relations at the Home Performance Stakeholder Council (HPSC). The HPSC is a non-profit that supports the residential retrofit industry in BC, working to increase the supply and demand for contractors trained with a whole-home approach to energy efficiency retrofits. In her role with the organization, Tanya specializes in strategic oversight of programs such as their flagship initiative the Home Performance Contractor Network, a database of over 500 (and growing) contracting companies that have completed accreditation and qualification criteria and are subject to ongoing quality assurance. Tanya also leads strategic collaboration with program and funding partners, as well as communications and marketing for the HPSC.
Tanya holds a Master of Science degree in Climate Change and Development from SOAS University of London, and a Bachelor of Arts in environmental Studies from Trinity Western University. Previous to joining the HPSC, Tanya worked for local government as a sustainability specialist on a variety of climate action, energy, and waste management initiatives.
Connect with Tanya at tanya@homeperformance.ca

Amy Tuck
Manitoba
Amy's Bio
Amy leads Efficiency Manitoba’s Income-based, Indigenous, and community programs portfolio. A Crown corporation, Efficiency Manitoba, is dedicated to helping Manitobans reduce their electricity and natural gas use through energy efficiency programs. A Bachelor of Commerce graduate, she has extensive marketing, project management, and operations experience. For over 13 years, Amy has been designing and delivering energy efficiency programs for a variety of customer segments in Manitoba. With a decade at Manitoba Hydro, she gained insight into the significant role that demand side management plays for utilities and the importance of bill affordability for underserved customers.
She believes that everyone should have access to energy efficiency programs and provides the strategic direction for a number of programs aimed at reducing barriers to participation and that build capacity opportunities. Email: amy.tuck@efficiencyMB.ca

Chantal Daigle Verrier
New Brunswick
Chantal's Bio
Chantal is a professional engineer working in the energy efficiency sector. With experience in manufacturing, consulting engineering, project management, and with green building certification programs (LEED, Zero Carbon Buildings, ICP) – she has collaborated on projects with people throughout Canada and beyond while holding New Brunswick based positions. Chantal broadened her knowledge by obtaining a master’s degree in climate change from the University of Waterloo with graduate courses on climate change science, mitigation, adaptation, emissions accounting, climate data and more.
She works at NB Power, delivering the Energy Efficiency Programs (saveenergynb.ca) for the commercial sector, funded in part by the utility, the province, and the Low Carbon Economy Fund. Energy efficiency mitigates climate change by reducing emissions. It also saves money, and stimulates the economy. Email: cdaigleverrier@nbpower.com.
Find her on local trails and waterways during her spare time.

Edmundo Fausto
Newfoundland and Labrador
Edmundo's Bio
Edmundo Fausto is the Sustainability Coordinator for the City of St. John’s, focusing on the City’s efforts to address energy use and climate change. With over 10 years of experience in environmental, energy, and climate change has worked with local, national, and international teams and experts to deliver energy and climate action. His experience includes policy, energy efficiency projects, climate change risk assessments, as well as the development of corporate and municipal plans for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Before joining the City of St. John’s, he worked at Wood PLC as a Climate Consultant, and the Toronto Region Conservation Authority as a project manager for the Ontario Climate Consortium.
Alex Giroux
Northwest Territories
Alex's Bio
Alex Giroux is a mechanical engineer who specializes in energy efficiency and building science. She has experience in both commercial and residential energy use as well as renewable energy, and has travelled extensively within the Northwest Territories. She has worked as a residential energy advisor and has a particular interest in residential energy use in remote communities.
Alex is a year round cyclist, an active member of the Yellowknife community, and discovered a love of canoe tripping during COVID.

Haruka Aoyama
Nova Scotia
Haruka's Bio
Haruka Aoyama is the Clean Energy Strategist at the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables (Government of Nova Scotia). After graduating from Dalhousie University with a combined Honours degree in Political Science and Environment, Sustainability and Society (ESS) programs, Haruka has worked in urban and rural municipal and provincial government in Nova Scotia.
Her past experiences include a Policy Analyst role for the Energize Bridgewater program, Infrastructure Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge awarded program that aims to lift residents out of energy poverty through deep energy retrofits.
Being a newcomer to Canada, Haruka is also active in the community volunteering to create a network that supports newcomers in Nova Scotia to get green jobs and participate in policy conversations and an inclusive economy.
Sabrina Marsh
Ontario
Sabrina's Bio
Sabrina Marsh is an engaged and dedicated energy efficiency (EE) professional. Her interest in climate action stems from her Northern Ontarian roots, where the greatness of the Great Lakes and beautiful surrounding forests are highly valued. A degree from The School of Environment, Resources, and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo, helped her become well rounded in many environmental and climate change issues and solutions.
Beginning her career at GreenSaver in Toronto, Sabrina worked on four different EE government and privately funded programs. These programs provided home retrofits and EE appliances to low-income Ontarians, and made small businesses refrigeration equipment more efficient. She continues to advocate for EE by engaging with elected officials and volunteering. During her time in Toronto, she volunteered with LiveGreen Toronto where communication with the public about pressing climate issues flourished.
Now, she volunteers for ClimateAction Waterloo Region, writing for the Community Action Report Newsletter discussing local climate action news, and achievements. Sabrina’s experience now enhances her work at EfficiencyOne focusing on residential EE retrofits for low-income Nova Scotians. The funding of the program allows low-income homeowners to receive heat pumps along with the required insulation. She is leading the way in reporting and tracking this work, while developing processes to ensure all data can be captured and useful. Sabrina can be found running on the roads or with a book in hand during her spare time.
She can be reached through LinkedIn or by email at smarsh@efficiencyns.ca
Abraham Wairisal
Ontario
Abraham's Bio
Abraham is an experienced Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) Registered Energy Advisor and Quality Assurance Specialist as well as a CHBA Net Zero Energy Advisor. Abraham is passionate about eradicating energy poverty, educating homeowners on energy efficiency upgrades in their homes and providing clear, detailed retrofit scope of work for builders/renovators.
Abraham is currently the Senior Energy Consultant with the City of Toronto, providing expert advice on anything single-family residential home energy efficiency related for City of Toronto homeowners. Previous to that, Abraham was a Program Manager with Ecofitt Corporation focused on the low-income energy efficiency programs in Ontario. He worked there for a year and has helped hundreds of Ontarians save on energy. Previously, Abraham worked in Greensaver, where he was responsible for training and managing close to 100 energy advisors all over Ontario. Prior to that, Abraham spent 6 months in Lindi, Tanzania as an Environmental Advisor where he taught poultry farmers how to make compost out of chicken droppings.
Abraham has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Waterloo, a Master’s degree in Social and Sustainable Business Management from Seattle Pacific University and a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering with Building Specialization from the University of Toronto.
Connect with Abraham by email at awairisal@gmail.com or LinkedIn.

Shane Hunter
Saskatchewan
Shane's Bio
Shane Hunter, a proud Metis entrepreneur was born and raised in Birch Hills, Saskatchewan. He spent his teen years and beyond living and working in the solar industry in Sonoma, California where his passion for renewables was born. He began working with his parent’s solar company and became foreman of his own crew very early in his career. He went on to build many PV systems, resulting in hundreds of kW of solar that included many ground mount systems in the hills of Sonoma County, wineries in the Napa Valley, generator back up systems, solar water pumping projects for winery irrigation, and wind turbine installation.
He returned to Saskatchewan to study, and worked to receive his Canadian Journeyman Electrician Red Seal, complete in 2011, and gained experience working throughout the province.
Shane is an owner and co-founder for Meridian Solar & Electric Inc., established in 2016. Based out of Radville, Saskatchewan. The move to Radville with his wife and 4 children was due to the fact that renewable energy concepts were scarce in the province, and the southern part of the province had particularly fantastic sun hours and opportunity for solar. The move began the adventure into entrepreneurship, and continued his passion in renewables. This led to many new opportunities, and directed his focus toward energy efficiency. He began his education in that field by completing his Energy Manager Professional course with CEIT, and gained his CEM Certified Energy Manager certificate.
When Shane isn’t working, designing, or consulting, he remains busy with his children; teaching them to fix vehicles and motors, building and heating a greenhouse in the garden, raising chickens, planting trees, and doing all kinds of weird and fun projects around his acreage.

Mathieu Côte
Québec
Mathieu's Bio
An experienced manager with more than 10 years of experience, I am currently Training
Director at Econoler, a Canadian consulting firm that has specialized in international and Canadian energy efficiency (EE) consulting for 40 years.
I am in charge of developing business opportunities for EE training services both nationally and internationally. I lead the Canadian Institute for Energy Training (CIET) relations with prospective clients, partners and associates. I also supervise training operations which include marketing, planning and organizing all international training events, as well as
ensuring delivery and quality assurance. Since taking this position, CIET has significantly increased revenues, as well as expanded geographic coverage and training portfolios.
I strongly believe in the significant potential benefits of EE-related technical and behavioral training activities in terms of cost-effectiveness and contribution to climate change mitigation efforts. I am thus committed to helping people learn more about EE and adequately equip them to serve as agents of change through their daily actions. I hold an MBA in International Business, have been a certified Project Management Professional since 2012 and a Certified Business Energy Professional (BEP) since 2014.

Michael Ross
Yukon
Michael's Bio
Dr. Michael Ross is the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Northern Energy Innovation at Yukon University. His applied research program is governed and directed by the CEOs and managers of the electric power utilities in the Yukon and Northwest Territories: ATCO Electric Yukon, Northwest Territories Power Corporation, and Yukon Energy Corporation, and with partnerships with northern communities and indigenous governments to help address their energy needs. The priority engineering research areas focus on integrating a high penetration of renewable generation in remote communities, diesel efficiencies, demand-side management, smart grids and microgrids.
Dr. Ross received his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering at McGill University, focusing on microgrid control and multi-objective optimization, and his Bachelor’s of Applied Science at the University of Toronto focusing on electric power systems. He was an author, contributor, and conveyor to the international CIGRÉ working groups on “Microgrids”, “Hybrid Systems for Off-grid Power Supply”, “Rural Electrification”, and “Distribution Customer Empowerment”, and is the Canadian representative for the Study Committee C6 on “Active Distribution Systems and Distributed Energy Resources”.
He is a registered Professional Engineer with Engineers Yukon, a Registered Professional Electrical Engineer in the State of Alaska, a certified Project Management Professional, the OG in Northern Power Research, a member of the IEEE Power and Energy Society, a member of CIGRÉ Canada, and is a Level 1 electrician apprentice.
Our Alumni Champions

Hammad Ahmed
Prince Edward Island

Ashley Abernethy
New Brunswick

Jeff Floyd
Ontario

Kim Fry
Nova Scotia

William Gagnon
Northwest Territories

Marianne Gregoire
Yukon

Christine Gustafson
British Columbia

Jesse Hitchcock
Nova Scotia

Nick Mercer
Newfoundland and Labrador

Sandra Moore
Alberta

Jesse Row
Alberta

Amanda San Filippo
Manitoba

Heather Shilton
Nunavut