Finance Committee on Feb. 12th, 2026

[Ehren Cory]

As I was mentioning in response to an earlier question, the way we work is that we have this appropriation from government. We draw it down as we finance projects and then we get repaid. As we get repaid, of course, we're charging some form of interest.

We were talking earlier about $18 billion in financing agreements. As our book of business grows, it draws money. Eleven of those projects, as I said, have been completed. Those projects are now paying us back with interest.

That flywheel, the idea of this, is a fund. It's an investment fund. Eventually, all $45 billion will come in. We'll put it out and we'll charge interest. We'll do that again and again and finance hundreds of billions of dollars of projects in this country over the long term.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. Cory.

Thank you, Mr. MacDonald.

Mr. Garon, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Once again, I would like to welcome all the witnesses to the committee.

I'm going to start with Mr. Cory from the Canada Infrastructure Bank. I'm going to continue a bit on the topic of electric buses and the electrification of transportation.

In 2021, the CIB committed to investing $1.5 billion in zero-emission buses.

How much of the $1.5 billion has been invested to date?

[Ehren Cory]

Sorry, are you asking me how much of that $1.5 million has been invested to date?

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

How much of the $1.5 billion that you promised for electric buses has been invested?

[Ehren Cory]

Madam Chair, Mr. Duguay might be able to help me with this in a moment.

Our program, to the best of my recollection, has fully invested the $1.5 billion. It is committed, as I said, to partners across the country, and I believe—

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

What percentage was invested in Quebec?

[Ehren Cory]

I'm sorry, Madam Chair. I don't know the percentage of those investments that are in Quebec. If it's the committee's will, I can certainly provide that afterwards. On our website, we show each of our investments, so I could pull that information, but I don't have it.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Thank you.

We would appreciate that.

How much of the investment went to Lion Electric?

[Ehren Cory]

As I said earlier, Madam Chair,

our investments are all loans to the buyers of fleets, so they go to the municipalities and school bus operators. They don't go directly to any one bus manufacturer. Actually, the decision of where to buy their buses is the City of Edmonton's, the City of Ottawa's, the Durham Region's—

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

We would like you to provide us with the list of carriers in Quebec that you've done business with.

As I understand it, the program announced in 2021 consisted partly of loans from the Canada Infrastructure Bank, with the rest being a grant program. It was jointly administered with Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada. However, in Quebec, the provincial government already had its own policy, so the federal program didn't apply.

Do you know whether Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada reached an agreement with Quebec to transfer its share of the grants so it could support businesses like Lion Electric?

[Ehren Cory]

I'm sorry, Madam Chair. That's beyond my understanding or role.

What I can say is that in Quebec, when we have worked on both the municipal fleets and, in particular, the school bus fleets, which is where we've had a lot of traction in Quebec, we have done so directly engaging with the provincial government in Quebec to align our programs with another grant program.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

I'm sorry to interrupt, but you're not answering the question.

This is right in the middle of your business ecosystem. You know that there's a Quebec program in place. Do you really have no idea?

This is the market you're in. You're investing $1.5 billion, but you have no idea whether an agreement has been reached between Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada and Quebec. You've never heard about this in your life.

Did I understand correctly?

[Ehren Cory]

Madam Chair, what I can say is that in our loan program, our loans align with and complement the program the Government of Quebec has offered to school bus operators so that the financing works together and they can go ahead and change their fleets.

Agreements between Infrastructure Canada and the province, as I said, are are not part of my role.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

You don't know. That's fine.

I want to talk to you about the Alto high-speed train project. It's a major infrastructure project, and I think it meets a lot of your criteria. You also mentioned the Réseau express métropolitain, or REM.

Is the Canada Infrastructure Bank currently a partner, or could it become a partner, in a project like high-speed rail?

[Ehren Cory]

Madam Chair, on the high-speed rail in the Quebec City to Toronto corridor, yes, I can confirm that the bank, early on in the analysis of that project in 2020-21, worked very closely with Transport Canada and Via to analyze the potential for private capital and institutional investment in that project.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

What did the potential look like?

[Ehren Cory]

Yes, I absolutely think that's a project that meets all of our criteria. Of course, there's development work going on. It's not an investment of the CIB today, but it certainly could be in the future.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

Are you still, to this day, having discussions with Alto about possible funding or involvement?

Is this something that's actively moving forward on your end right now, or is it on ice?

[Ehren Cory]

Yes, Madam Chair, we stay in ongoing touch with our colleagues at Alto. When the time comes and they're at the stage of raising the equity and debt to finance the main project, it's something that we will obviously look at. Yes, we have regular—not frequent, but regular—contact with them as they progress their project.

[Jean-Denis Garon, Bloc, Mirabel, QC]

We're interested in this project, obviously. It’s a major project with real potential. Alto told us, for example, that by mid-century—which is fast approaching—25 million people would be taking the train. An analysis was done. We know those numbers can sometimes be optimistic, although we have no reason to believe them or not believe them.

At the Canada Infrastructure Bank, you're looking for some profitability. You have to be accountable. Have you done a cost-benefit analysis?

Is it because of insufficient profitability that you decided not to get involved yet and are waiting for the next round?

[Ehren Cory]

Madam Chair, the interesting thing about public transit projects at all levels—high-speed rail, and it's true for municipal transit as well—is that the direct revenues they generate—fares, or development around the line—are never going to fully pay for the transit, so you're always going to have a blended finance solution.

The CIB has looked at the early stages of studies on what the traffic volumes and profitability could be. We think there's an investment opportunity for both us and the pension funds for the project.

[The Chair, Liberal, Karina Gould]

Thank you, Mr. Cory.

Thank you, Mr. Garon.

We will continue with Mr. McLean.

Mr. McLean, you have five minutes.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Thank you very much.

I'll go back to Mr. Cory.

You talked about the $50 million you loaned, as you would say, to Highland Electric Fleets in Beverly, Massachusetts. You also loaned $400 million to Quebec's Bus Carriers Federation and $15 million to Autobus Séguin. More than $1 billion has gone out for these zero-emission buses, and I suppose some of those may include Lion Electric buses as well.

Regarding the ones that are definitely Lion Electric buses, would you say those loans are a writeoff at this point in time, including the one to the U.S. company?

[Ehren Cory]

Madam Chair, if I may, I'll address that question and also address the member's question at the tail end of his last comments.

To be very clear, every one of our investments is in, or partly in, Canada. If it is a bridge between Canada and the U.S., we can invest in that. It must be infrastructure in Canada, and it must be infrastructure that benefits Canadians.

Now, as to the companies that deliver this, we live in a global world. There are companies that come from around the world and do business in Canada. As Canadians, we benefit from that, but our loans benefit Canadians and Canadians only. To your earlier question, they could not use the loan, for instance, to buy buses that would be on the roads in the U.S. They must benefit Canadians. That's what the purpose of our financing is and always is.