Transport committee  Because there are certain barriers that Honda has indicated to me—I can't speak on behalf of Honda—that prevent Honda from getting it into Canada without significant investment and cost.

Transport committee  I believe they are, yes, and I think probably some commercial expense as well. But I'm not sure what those are, and I can't speak for Honda Motor Company. I do know of organizations that have brought Honda Civic GXs into Canada in what they call the grey market and registered them, but they don't get dealer support.

Transport committee  Harmonization would be a great help, absolutely.

Transport committee  They're supplied almost exclusively by truck, just as diesel would be supplied. You would see a value chain identical to that for diesel in that the refinery is a liquefaction plant, which is a plant on a large pipeline that's liquefying or chilling the natural gas until it turns into a liquid, and then it's dispensed into a truck.

Transport committee  There is. There are small-scale liquefiers that operate on a much smaller scale than does the Gaz Métro plant in Montreal. However, with smaller scale comes added cost and inefficiency. The larger the plants are, the more efficient they are and the more energy efficient they are.

Transport committee  No, it is very practical for automotive use, or for buses for that matter.

Transport committee  Exactly. These days there are several companies. In fact a very well-known Canadian company, now owned by a U.S. company but headquartered in Chilliwack, British Columbia, called IMW Industries, is one of the world leaders in natural gas refuelling stations. They provide anything from a small-scale refuelling station that has one receptacle all the way up to these large-scale, multi-point refuelling stations for big waste fleets or transit fleets.

Transport committee  Harmonization of codes and standards with those in other jurisdictions would be a big help. The second thing would be for the government to vocally support alternative fuels by having government agencies that actively promote alternatives to consumers become more active in supporting all alternatives and presenting all alternatives.

Transport committee  That would be through information and outreach. Then lastly, certainly we could benefit significantly from a short-term incentive program for specific targeted industries to adopt this technology, much like the one in the United States.

Transport committee  It could be, but as far as the time, I'm not about to speculate. Hydrogen has been around for a considerable amount of time already. Yet it can't seem to get its market legs, so to speak, its ability to prove itself beyond small deployment projects. However, there could be a discovery, potentially at a Canadian university, of some better way of getting hydrogen to the marketplace and making it more cost-effective.

Transport committee  We think natural gas will come in over the next several decades from a variety of sources in Canada. We have conventional gas resources. We have what's known as tight gas or coal bed methane, for example, in the border between Alberta and British Columbia in what's called the Montney area.

Transport committee  Sure. I don't know the specific issues; I can't identify any one specific issue. But there are requirements for crash testing here in Canada that are different from what are in the United States, as an example that I understand. For example, Honda Motor Company in the United States manufactures a car—running on natural gas—that for the past seven years has been rated the cleanest car in North America by a very well recognized standards organization.

Transport committee  First, we think a lot of the evidence that exists out there today with regard to our supply scenario should mitigate many of the concerns you mentioned about a spike in prices. However, I think the industry thinks natural gas prices in North America are somewhat unsustainable at the moment because they are so low.

Transport committee  Merci. We have worked on hydrogen a considerable amount. We've done hydrogen-natural gas blends on buses in Vancouver, British Columbia. We've blended a certain amount of hydrogen into the natural gas to get improved combustion of the engine, but on a spark-ignited engine. We've also run hydrogen, in collaboration with BMW and Ford, in internal combustion engines—these are internal combustion engines, not fuel cells—with great success.

Transport committee  First, I would say that we applaud the government's efforts in freeing up and removing some of the trade barriers. Whether it's with Asia or Europe, it's been a very important part of our success. We have partnerships, for example, in Korea and China, and with many European countries as well, and the removal of some of these trade barriers has been critical to making those succeed.