For motors, Canada relies on U.S. regulations. In the case of city buses, a single manufacturer in North America manufactures an eligible motor for public transit purposes. There is competition in Europe: five or six manufacturers build motors that meet European standards. If you compare European standards to those in North America, you can say that, when a North American standard is established, it is more restrictive, but that the European standard subsequently exceeds it. They follow each other and, year after year, seem quite similar to the average person. If we accepted a European standard, we would see that a bus in Paris is not that different from a bus in Ottawa. The European companies could then provide Canada with vehicles equipped with European motors. They currently have to import the motors, which is not cost-effective for them. The Canadian and North American market is very small compared to the European market.
We now have two manufacturers in Canada: one manufactures between 500 and 1,000 buses a year and the other between 2,000 and 3,000. In Europe, every manufacturer builds 4,000 to 8,000 buses a year. Our market is a small one. Standards are too strict and unappealing for European companies. If they could send us a stock bus at a reasonable price—because it should also be said that volume makes for good prices in Europe—we would be able to benefit from the technology developed there by multinationals such as Volvo, Mercedes and Scania. Our bus manufacturers here are not necessarily large companies like that. New Flyer and Orion International, for example, sometimes receive support, but we are talking about small volumes and small manufacturers.