Natural Resources committee  Yes, I understand.

Natural Resources committee  As I said, the RFS opens the marketplace and it provides options for consumers. The energy market today is not an open market, so the RFS would lead, from our perspective, to opening the marketplace. It provides more options for consumers. There are more competitive options and more competitiveness in the marketplace.

Natural Resources committee  In fact, the purpose of this idea is to support the financing chain and to help companies move from demonstration to commercialization. The SR&ED; program works well. It has helped a lot of SMEs developed their technology. Often, during the commercialization phase, they lacked tools.

Natural Resources committee  For an innovation to succeed, it has to be possible to close the financing loop. Unfortunately, often good ideas don't make it out of a garage, or are bought by others and go elsewhere. We have to be able to close the financing loop for our green technologies. To do so, the technologies have to be technically proven, they have to have the financial tools, and they need a viable business plan.

Natural Resources committee  Yes, that would be the case. Of course, our sector provides a solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by replacing part of the oil, and in our case, by preventing methane that comes from landfills. In that respect, I think we have an important role to play. Our plants will help reach Canada's goals.

Natural Resources committee  For the demolition facility or the...?

Natural Resources committee  I'm sorry, I don't have the exact figure of the SD Tech Fund contribution for the demolition facility. For the NexGen Biofuels Fund, right now we're in phase two, and we're receiving a smaller amount because this is really a percentage of the pre-engineering phase. Based on the agreement we have with the SDTC NexGen Biofuels Fund, this could go up to $33 million.

Natural Resources committee  This one is the demonstration facility. We're located just in front of the sawmill that recycles those power poles, yes. But this is more of a demolition facility. If you look at the three commercial facilities, usually it's on the landfill site or an industrial park. In this case, it's located adjacent to a corn ethanol facility, given that we have the same customer, the refiners.

Natural Resources committee  The process is an auto-thermal process, so there's no energy needed to convert the solid material into the syngas. Basically we just start the process, but there is no energy requirement to transform the solid waste into the syngas. Overall, there's an energy efficiency where we produce four or five times the energy that we actually need.

Natural Resources committee  So you would like me to explain....

Natural Resources committee  Yes, sure.

Natural Resources committee  Our plants are standardized. At each plant, we expect to create 40 direct permanent jobs. We are talking about engineers, technicians, operators and, of course, administrative employees. Currently, we are seeing it at our plant in Edmonton. We have hired 15 to 20 people so far. It is the same plant everywhere, whether it is in Edmonton, Varennes or Mississippi.

Natural Resources committee  We haven't done that comparison. However, regarding synergies and different types of expertise, what we are looking for is very similar. For example, we need chemical engineers and plant operators. We have even hired people who had worked for Shell in Montreal and had lost their job.

Natural Resources committee  The company was founded in 2000. We started at the R and D phase, and in 2003 we started operating our pilot facility. Then we moved to the demolition facility starting in 2009.

Natural Resources committee  That's a good question. Basically, when we developed the technology we were able to test the technical viability. As we scaled out the technology, we were looking at the best business model and the size of our full-scale commercial facility. We quickly realized that we needed to be profitable at a low scale, given that we want to focus on waste and residues and a wide variety of low-value feedstock.