Good morning, everyone.
Madam Chair, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to participate in your study on the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
I would also like to say thanks to the folks who helped me figure out my technical problems and to you for your patience.
I work at a company called AddÉnergie, which was founded by our CEO in 2009 in Quebec City. It was actually built out of his master's project, so this is a real example of the commercialization of academic work. Over the last decade, our company has grown to more than 200 employees. Our Shawinigan plant has built over 40,000 charging stations that have been distributed across North America. We have a network operations centre and R and D lab in Quebec City and also in Montreal.
While we are a very proud Quebec company, we are expanding rapidly. We have deployed stations all across Canada up to the Yukon, as well as in the United States. We've done custom-mounted curbside stations in Los Angeles. We just announced this morning that we're deploying over 100 stations in New York City and also in the Midwest. We're also a proud Canadian company with a heavily Canadian supply chain, with approximately 85% of expenses paid to Canadian suppliers.
COVID for our industry had a significant effect. It did lead to a drop in demand, as companies limited their capital expenditures while they were trying to make sure they weren't spending too much money on things that could be avoided and were planning out the global economic response to COVID, but it is bouncing back. To give you an example from our company, we're bigger than when the pandemic started. We're investing in expanding our Quebec production facilities. We're also looking at a new U.S. plant to try to help serve that market.
As we emerge from this crisis, I think there are some really important questions that all of us need to be asking and that Canadians are asking themselves. The first one is how we make the most of the opportunity to refocus our economy, and how we set ourselves to succeed in the new net-zero world we are working towards.
In our area, which broadly defined is the transportation sector, Canadians are going back to work. That means the transportation emissions for those who drive personal vehicles will rise again. We know that Canada has new ambitious climate targets, including a reduction of 40% to 45% by 2030. Our allies in the United States have set the target of a 50% to 52% reduction over the same time period.
The answer is that if we're going to meet those climate targets, what needs to happen to the transportation sector is a full-scale reduction in those emissions. Transportation creates the second-most emissions in Canada, and it's growing. If we want to actually get to our targets without taking all of the impact out on other sectors like the oil and gas industry, we need to figure out how to deal with transportation emissions. That's why Canada and other countries are investing in charging stations and vehicle incentives. In the United States, President Biden has announced a $500,000 charging station investment to be deployed to that end.
So this is happening, but frankly, it's beyond Canada. It's happening in Europe and it's happening in Asia. This is the direction the transportation sector is going. The more specific question for Canadians is what role we want Canada to play, and what role Canadians can play in terms of jobs.
In our area, we see jobs for automotive technicians, electricians, engineers and miners because of batteries, of course. Canada has many of the resources needed for batteries. Then there are the other construction professionals who all benefit from zero-emissions vehicles—in production, the battery supply chain, the charging stations and the energy that powers them. In our little space, charging infrastructure is essential. Canadians are not likely to adopt electric vehicles if they can't see charging stations. We find that over 50% of the total cost of charging stations actually goes to local contractors who install the stations and also for the electrical power that goes to them. It's a really great opportunity for job growth.
We think that Canada can and should lead there. How do we get there? There's a bunch of policies that can help us achieve this. We can also work on government procurement, because Canada is such a major purchaser of vehicles and charging stations.
I'll just sum up by saying that I'm very pleased the committee is looking at these items. We really think that electrified transportation can be a big part of the solution here.
Thank you.