Transport Committee on Oct. 16th, 2012

Evidence of meeting #46 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was bombardier.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Innovative Transportation Technologies

MPs speaking

Larry Miller
Olivia Chow
Denis Coderre
Mark Adler
Pierre Poilievre
Mike Sullivan
Ed Holder
Robert Aubin
Jeff Watson

Also speaking

George Binns  Equipment Engineer, Paladin Consulting
Garry Fuller  President, GF Rail Consulting
Jason Wolf  Vice-President, North America, Better Place
Pierre Seïn Pyun  Vice-President, Government Affairs, Bombardier Inc.
Paul Larouche  Director, Marketing and Product Planning, Bombardier Transportation North America, Bombardier Inc.
Etienne Couture  President, Réseau des ingénieurs du Québec

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON

My final question, then, with my available time, would be this. I recall that not all that long ago, in southwestern Ontario the grid went down. It impacted southwestern Ontario, Michigan, and it actually was significant throughout Canada and the States. When that happens—and I acknowledge that it was pretty brutal for businesses—are you out of business, if the electric grid goes down?

12:45 p.m.

Vice-President, North America, Better Place

Jason Wolf

No, because the switching stations have a reserve of batteries that are fully charged. These batteries will be dispensed. Of course, they will run out, just as in Florida when the hurricane came in: after a while you don't even have liquid fueling stations.

The benefit of this type of network approach is that working with Hydro Québec, or PowerStream or Veridian in Toronto—with those types of utilities—you can actually make the grid more stable, because of the buffering of renewable energy and the ability to store, not just balance, load, and generation.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

12:45 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Larry Miller

Thank you very much.

Our time has run out, but I'd like to thank all of our witnesses who are here in person with us and the two who are with us by video conference. Thank you very much.

We'll see the committee on Thursday. We are adjourned.