Using lightweight materials means removing steel to replace it with polymers, bio-fibres, or anything that's going to lighten the weight of the vehicle in order to reduce emissions.
The third area is connected and automated vehicles, whether they be an application to a railcar, a bus, or an automobile. That includes the sensors, signals, and controls.
The fourth area is cybersecurity. Anytime the vehicle plugs into the grid, or anytime the vehicle is communicating to infrastructure, there's a cybersecurity concern.
The fifth area is big data, and using big data essentially to optimize routes, fleet, logistics, and so on.
We work in these areas, and we've come across several problems at the federal level. Problems that I would like to highlight here today because you're in the midst of discussing an innovation agenda.
CUTRIC has been at it for two years, and across the country we have found four clusters of innovation where over 50 projects have arisen in these five pillar areas in the last two years.
Those clusters are the greater Toronto and Hamilton area, the greater Vancouver area, the greater Montreal area, and the greater Winnipeg area. Recently, the greater Edmonton area has cropped up with several projects in our pipeline as well. It's clear that there are clusters of innovation capacity in zero-emissions, connected, lightweight, and digitally enabled vehicle systems.
The challenge is that, right now, there is no federal funding solution. There is nowhere you can go in the federal government to simply streamline or efficiently fund these high-risk, high-cost innovation projects.
I'll give you an example. Of the 50 projects we have in our pipeline right now, the Ontario government has come to the table and funded us at $10 million this year to start off projects, but the federal match is non-existent for several of these projects. I can go to NSERC. I can go to SSHRC. I can go to ASIP. I can go to PTIF or PTIF phase 2. I can go SDTC.
The APC, the automotive partnership Canada is now dead. I could have gone to that up to 2015. There's IRAP. There's Mitacs, and there's the new NRCan energy innovation program funding.
The problem is that, of the 50-some projects we have, a couple of them could be funded by NSERC, a couple by SSHRC, a couple by ASIP. Several projects cannot be funded by any of these portals. All of these portals have different deadlines, timelines, and rules of engagement. It means that it's extremely complex, challenging, and sometimes impossible for a small to mid-size enterprise, a medium-sized supplier, or a large-scale original equipment manufacturer to do a high-cost, high-risk innovation project.
For example, if I want to design a new electric motor or electric powertrain integrated into a battery vehicle powertrain system, it is extremely difficult in Canada to find the right kind of funding to de-risk those high-cost projects. The nature of innovation funding that CUTRIC works on is fundamentally collaborative. That means it's not for all companies. It's not for all kinds of innovation. It's going to be for those kinds of innovation projects where companies cannot do it internally.
Let's say I'm an auto company, or I'm a rail manufacturer like Bombardier, or I'm a bus manufacturer like Nova Bus. There are several technologies in zero-emissions vehicles, lightweight vehicles, or digitally connected vehicles that I cannot do on my own internally. It's too high a cost. I don't have the personnel. I don't have the equipment. I don't have the laboratories. By nature, I need to collaborate, either with universities or other suppliers. Those kinds of collaborative projects, especially if they are cross-provincial, cannot be funded right now at the federal level.
I know it's not apropos these days to say that the former government did good things, but there was a great program called the automotive partnership Canada fund. That program actually launched and probably funded every single company we have in this country that currently works in electric mobility hydrogen fuel cells, advanced automotive, or transit and transportation technologies.
That program died. There has been nothing to replace it. The result is that we've been working with Industry Canada, now ISED, Transport Canada, NRCan, and Infrastructure Canada for two years to figure out how to find a funding solution. I recognize that the minister is working on an innovation agenda. We recognize that right now we have dozens and dozens of projects ready to launch. I don't like to use the phrase “shovel-ready” but we have these projects ready to launch, and yet no federal funding partner.
That is the challenge that I would like to highlight to you today. I will conclude simply with the following statement.
Government does well several things, such as early-stage research. What it has not been able to do well at the federal level, at least in the last 10 years, is collaborative industry-led cross-provincial innovation in high-risk technologies.
The one instance in the recent federal budget of money for innovation of this type went to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, but I can tell you that the challenge we face together is, when you take innovation dollars and put them in the hands of municipalities, the rules of engagement are zero risk. Municipalities represented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities cannot accept risk. By definition, all of these projects are high-risk. If we want jobs in Canada to conclude in zero-emission vehicles, lightweight vehicle systems, digitally connected and automated vehicle systems, or data-driven optimization solutions, then we need to create a federal funding solution that helps to de-risk these projects, support industry-led innovation, and ultimately do so in a way that is immediate, because the issue is urgent.
Thank you.