The U.S. government, during the recession, introduced a capital cost zero depreciation or accelerated depreciation to spur the purchase of all trucks, not just natural gas trucks. There's no advantage between a natural gas truck and a diesel truck in the U.S., but it did spur some investment in the trucking industry.
At this point I don't know if that accelerated capital cost allowance is being considered by British Columbia or Alberta. In the United States there are demands—at this point fiscally—for what they call “pay-fors” or corresponding compensation for any specific credit given to an industry. They are contemplating providing a tax credit—if you are profitable and paying taxes—against your taxes payable of up to $64,000 for a natural gas class 8 truck. That would be paid for through a levy put on the natural gas purchased by trucks. So a levy on liquefied natural gas is contemplated. It would be on a sliding scale, and it would slide over five years to zero. At the end of five years the levy would expire, as would the tax credit, once the industry was brought to a sustainable level.
The challenge right now for the industry, from a sales perspective, is that the volumes are very small compared to diesel vehicles. The costs are considerably higher for natural gas trucks than for diesel trucks because we aren't getting the volume of production that you get in the diesel industry. It's anticipated that by providing a five-year window of incentives in the United States, the industry can get significant enough volumes to be able to bring its costs down and become sustainable.