Transport Committee on March 15th, 2012

[Don Moore]

We're spread right across the country. However, there is a significant—again, I don't remember the exact numbers off the top of my head. In Ontario, it's a very large number. Alberta is our next largest. Then, British Columbia and Quebec are very similar.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

How many would come from Ontario, roughly?

[Don Moore]

Ontario, I believe, is just a little over 100.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

That's relative to how many potential members across the country? If you could get everyone associated with your industry who would be legitimate members, how big could that be?

[Don Moore]

Our best swag right now is that we feel we probably could hit the 650 or so mark. There are still a lot of other small ma and pa shops out there, and other companies and dealers.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Would that be the total of all potential members in your association across the country?

[Don Moore]

It would be pretty close.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Appreciating that, I'm reflecting on something you talked about with the study you had commissioned your membership to be involved in. I'm not sure if you spearheaded it, or who spearheaded it, where you raised some $320,000 to pay for a program that Transport Canada received. Could you elaborate on that a little? Did your association drive it, or was that driven by your membership?

[Don Moore]

That was the association.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Can you talk about that for just a moment so I can understand that better please?

[Don Moore]

Essentially, what we had was this rear impact guard standard to meet. It was going to require a very large test rig, and the testing requirement was significant and substantially different from what the U.S. equivalent guard was. So we gathered together all the trailer members who would be affected by this new rule and said, okay, here we are and we need to do this. They said, okay, yes, let's go out and get a few quotes. We ended up working with the National Research Council to develop a test procedure and the actual guard designs, which were quite as generic in nature as made sense and would cover 90%-plus of the actual population where these guards would be required. They gave us a quote. We went back to membership and said, okay, it's going to cost in this case about $300-some-odd thousand.

So we're going to need x number of dollars from each of these stakeholders. And anybody else who wanted to buy in would have to pay in that amount. So we acted as the contractor, so to speak, to pull that together.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

I apologize for interrupting you here. It's fair to say then that the money that your membership gave really drove that technology, and while it was supported by Transport Canada, it was through an initiative that you folks undertook. Is that fair to say?

[Don Moore]

Yes.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Compliments to you on that.

My question comes from this standpoint: the government can be really good at making rules, but one of the things that we're not always so good at doing is streamlining things that make it better for business. Do you have any suggestions in terms of any areas where we as the federal government is impeding the business that your membership does? Do you have any specific suggestions from the standpoint of there being potentially less regulation, or can you suggest cumbersome things where we're in the way, about which we can assist your business or your industry?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jamie Nicholls]

Make it a very brief response, please.

[Don Moore]

Other than, as I say, possibly on the R and D, there could be tax relief for trying to do some of the exercises like we just talked about, to try to help them out a little bit with those funds, because they were still significant.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

That's not regulation.

[Don Moore]

That's not really regulation, though. I'm not really familiar enough with all of the other tax implications, etc., to provide information on what those other departments could help on.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Jamie Nicholls]

Thank you.

Mr. Boulerice.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Moore, we are happy to have you with us today.

I have a few questions for you. The first question is about something you said. It has come up a few times.

Regarding innovation, especially in terms of the environment—be it greenhouse gas emissions, vehicle weight, fuel use, hybrid vehicles, or whatever—you said that your members would innovate if there was a demand for innovation.

I have a question that may seem a bit strange. Has a client ever told you to make them something that could be more expensive or would make them less competitive, but would be good for the planet?

[Don Moore]

No.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

You also said—when you spoke for the second time—that the regulations can sometimes be useful because they level the playing field for all the stakeholders. In other words, if everyone has the same obligations, there is no disadvantage for your clients or your members, since everyone has to meet the same standards. Is that correct?

[Don Moore]

That is correct.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

So regulations whose objective is the respect of the environment or the greater good could be seen as acceptable by your association and your members.