Evidence of meeting #69 for Natural Resources in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was support.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
You wouldn't have to raise the excise tax on the normal fuels to make it revenue neutral.
4:35 p.m.
Manager, Government Relations, General Motors of Canada Limited
We don't believe it would be necessary. Other jurisdictions have definitely not.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Would you oppose it? You wouldn't oppose it, would you?
4:35 p.m.
Manager, Government Relations, General Motors of Canada Limited
We're not suggesting raising taxes on anything, but we're saying have an offset measure.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
I don't want to raise taxes. I just want to decrease the tax on....
February 28th, 2013 / 4:35 p.m.
Conservative
4:35 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
I know that it's important for you not to say certain things.
I'd like to ask Mr. Truckenbrodt about the fuel cell research that used to go on at NRC. NRC is undergoing a big reorganization. I was wondering if you could tell me what is happening to fuel cell research and how that affects you.
4:35 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation
As far as I'm aware here, NRC has, in the reorganization and restructuring, put fuel cells very much on the back burner. The NRC's IFCI, Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation, which used to be here in Vancouver, has redefined its priorities and its scope, so there is not a lot of fuel cell research going on any more here in Vancouver. That is a pity because what happens is that our ability to partner and jointly to really advance the fuel cell technology in that area where I said innovation is important—fundamental understanding, analysis, and simulation—has gone down. The second element is that we are losing competent people because they don't find a home any more here. I cannot hire all of them, of course, when they become available, so they are going somewhere. They might either go away from fuel cells, or they might leave this area here, or they might even leave Canada. It has an impact.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
In my riding, the Queen's–Royal Military College Fuel Cell Research Centre is important. They've done a lot of research in fuel cells. Can you tell me the importance of the research there to your business?
4:35 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation
What are you referring to?
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
The Queen's–Royal Military College Fuel Cell Research Centre and its relevance to what you do.
4:35 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation
Frankly, I have to pass there. I'm not aware of them. Where are they based?
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
4:35 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation
In Queen's. Oh, sorry.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
4:35 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation
No, it's not of the Queen, the person, sorry.
4:35 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
4:35 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation
We still have a lot of joint projects going on within the Canadian fuel cell community, if you like, between university and research organizations on analysis and simulation. They are a partner in that. I can't tell you right off the top of my head which projects we are doing with them, but there is still a good network existing with some of the research institutions in Canada.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Ted Hsu Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Thank you very much.
For Mr. Wagner, does the elimination of the eligibility of capital expenditure for the SR and ED affect your company?
4:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atlantic Hydrogen Inc.
Yes, it does. I believe it's one whose impact may not be felt right away, but, yes, it will affect the development we do in the future, for sure.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you, Mr. Hsu.
We go now to the five-minute round, starting with Mr. Allen, then Mr. Calkins, and then Mr. Nicholls.
Go ahead, Mr. Allen, for up to five minutes.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Allen Conservative Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I thank the witnesses for being here. A special welcome to Mr. Wagner from the Atlantic Hydrogen Inc., a facility I visited a couple of times and where I once to make an announcement.
Mr. Wagner, I'd like to start with you. It's good to see you're getting to an industrial-scale plant. Specifically, I would like to ask a few questions about that.
First, what is the size of that industrial-scale plant? How much natural gas is going to be required to do the appropriate tests that are going to be needed? How much product output from carbon byproducts will you have and where do you think those byproducts will go?
4:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Atlantic Hydrogen Inc.
Those are all good questions and I'll try to answer them in understandable metrics.
As for the size of our plant, it scaled to do about eight times what our prototype here in the Fredericton facility is capable of doing. To give a metric, when that plant is fully operational, it will produce approximately 1,500 kilograms of hydrogen a day and 1,800 tonnes of particle carbon. Now, that's not the same as 1,800 tonnes of CO2. This is carbon that has been removed from the natural gas.
In terms of the consumption of natural gas, our facility happens to be in Saint John, New Brunswick, on the site of a power-generation facility. Access to natural gas in that part of New Brunswick is not a concern. We would use in the order of 2,000 cubic metres of natural gas an hour to produce the hydrogen and carbon I just referred to.
