Evidence of meeting #5 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was communities.
A recording is available from Parliament.
2:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you, Mr. McCauley.
Now we'll go to Mr. Jowhari for five minutes.
2:55 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Madame Fortin, I have a question about some of the greening initiatives that Canada Post is implementing to reduce the Canada Post carbon footprint.
Can you specifically expand on the pilot project that I believe you are doing on e-cargo in Montreal?
2:55 p.m.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
As I said before, we are constantly looking to innovate on how we improve service and how we go about meeting our other ambitions around social, environmental and indigenous issues. The e-trike pilot is an exciting innovation. It was tested in Montreal. It's like a bike with cargo behind it, with some power. It's obviously meant to replace fossil fuel vehicles in the downtown core.
The test was held this spring and summer in Montreal. I live in Montreal, and I consider it a pretty difficult city to operate in, whether you're in a car, a bike or otherwise. It was quite a success, actually. Our test was intended—with employees, the union and the city—to help us understand if we can operate these vehicles in this environment. Is it safe for employees to operate these vehicles, and for Canadians who live in Montreal? How does using those vehicles change the cost of each of the items we would deliver through them?
We've gathered some of that data, and now we are going to be testing in a very different city—we'll be in Ottawa, actually—to see if the results change when you're not in a big downtown core like Montreal's. It's certainly an option for us.
We think our fleet of the future will look very different from the fleet we have today. Using e-trikes and drones might be one of those solutions, which is why we keep trying different things.
3 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Thank you for that. That's quite interesting. We're looking forward to the results of that and the applications for other urban areas.
My next question is on Canada Post potentially allowing some of its facilities to be used as charging stations to support our EV infrastructure. Can you expand on that one?
3 p.m.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Are you asking if we're going to provide infrastructure—
3 p.m.
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Yes. Are you considering something like that, stationing some of the fast EV chargers, typical charging stations, at some of them?
3 p.m.
Interim Chief Operating Officer, Canada Post Corporation
Eventually we will, probably. For now our focus on EV stations is to have them through the community hubs, because the community has asked for them, and to have them for our fleet. When we receive those electric vehicles in Montreal and Vancouver shortly, we will need to have stations for them to be able to be charged.
We have 12,000 vehicles, so our focus is on how we make sure we can electrify and green that fleet and provide the infrastructure for it. That's not to say that down the road, with the network of post offices that we have and depending on where electrification goes for every Canadian, we're not going to be providing—because of the numerous locations we have across Canada—something for Canadians to charge with, but our focus right now really is on our own use, if I can put it that way.
3 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you, Mr. Jowhari.
Thank you, everybody, for being here.
Thank you to the witnesses, Ms. Fortin and Mr. Pitre. I am specifically looking forward to hearing and learning more about rural Canada and the reality of what rural Canada is, because it's not cottage country, so I appreciate this. You indicated throughout the meeting that you would provide answers to the committee, so please do so and provide those answers to the clerk.
Likewise, members, if you have any extra questions you are thinking about that you want to put in writing and submit to the clerk, we will take those and submit them as well.
With that, I'd like to thank you all, and I'd like to thank the interpreters. It was a much easier meeting than the last one.
Also, to the technicians, the clerk and the analysts, thank you very much.
With that said, I call the meeting adjourned.