Transport Committee on Feb. 18th, 2021

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

I'll just summarize it. How is it safer for them to be in a hotel where they could come into contact with someone who does have COVID, instead of going straight home and self-isolating?

[Michael Keenan]

I think I understand. You mean while they're awaiting their results.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

Yes.

[Michael Keenan]

I think it's in several ways. First, for the traveller who arrives, when the swab is taken but they don't yet have a result—they don't know if they're positive or negative—if they go home, for many of them they'll actually go through the airport or they'll take another plane. They may take an Uber home. They may take a bus. The Public Health Agency has seen that the few people who do come in who are positive have passed on the virus in the process of going home.

In contrast, with this new protocol, there's a very strict system of managing, from a public health perspective, the transportation to the nearby hotel. The hotel will be adhering to very strict public health protocols. If they are positive, the risk of transmitting while they're moving to the airport hotel is much less than if they're allowed to continue their onward journey to their home to self-isolate.

In essence, that potential for transmission has been removed as a result of this measure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Mr. Soroka, you have time for one quick question.

[Gerald Soroka, Conservative, Yellowhead, AB]

With the new travel restrictions, were the airlines ever consulted about not being able to go to sun destinations until the end of April?

[Michael Keenan]

I can say that the airlines were not just consulted, but they actually agreed.

The four major Canadian airlines that travel to the Caribbean and Mexico all voluntarily agreed. The Prime Minister announced, I think on Friday, January 29, that they had agreed to cease all of their travel to all Caribbean destinations and Mexico, effective January 31. The Prime Minister thanked them for their leadership and recognized their leadership in contributing to reducing the threat of the importation of COVID and these new variants of concern.

The government committed to continue to work with the industry through these negotiations and also to working together to develop a plan for the eventual safe restart of air travel.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Mr. Keenan, and thank you, Mr. Soroka.

We're now going to move on.

Ms. Jaczek, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being with us this afternoon.

I'm not sure who on your team is most appropriate to answer this question, but I was particularly struck by an item in the minister's supplementary mandate letter. The direction is for the minister to:

Work with the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and the Minister of Natural Resources, and with the support of the Special Representative for the Prairies, to implement the Net-Zero Accelerator Fund in continuing to support our manufacturing, transportation, natural resource and energy sectors as they work to transform to meet a net-zero future, creating good-paying and long-lasting jobs.

That's a lot of words. Could you make this a little more concrete? Perhaps give us an example of what type of business might apply to this fund, what it would look like and what sort of role Transport Canada is going to take in this initiative.

[Michael Keenan]

It's a great question. If I can, I'll refer it to my colleague Lawrence Hanson, the senior assistant deputy minister for strategic policy, who's overseeing our work on the enhanced climate plan.

Lawrence.

[Lawrence Hanson, Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy, Department of Transport]

The issue is that the fund is ultimately looking to drive technological innovation in key sources of carbon-emitting sectors. As members might know, about 25% of all our emissions come from transportation. Transport Canada has significant expertise both in an economic and in a regulatory sense in the automotive sector, which is one of the key elements of the net-zero accelerator. Therefore, we'll be working very closely with those departments on net zero, just as we have been on other related issues in the auto sector such as zero-emission vehicles.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Hanson.

To follow up, and I think it fits fairly well, we've started to hear about light-utility vehicles becoming net zero. I'm very much struck by the need for this in my riding and my neighbourhood. It seems as though every young fellow of 20 to 30 years of age seems to want to drive one of these vehicles. They're really so common, so it seems like a great initiative.

Could you tell us a bit about which automotive companies are moving in this direction and whether you think we'll be on target for 2040?

[Michael Keenan]

We've seen the same trend as the member. For example, you can see, almost every week or every month, the auto companies are bringing out new commitments in terms of moving their lines of light-duty vehicles, including some sport-utility vehicles, into zero-emission propulsion systems.

The zero-emission vehicle incentive program gets new applications for models on a regular basis to be registered for eligibility.

As a reminder to members, that program has a very strict price limit. To be eligible, vehicles have to have a base model that's under $45,000.

We are seeing that shift in light-duty vehicles. We're seeing the shift in sport-utility vehicles and we're anticipating a future shift in heavy-duty vehicles as the economics of the technology advance and the economics improve for battery technology in zero-emission vehicles. The 2040 target is very ambitious, 100% of new sales, and it's going to take a lot of work to get there, but we're seeing the progress and we're seeing the exponential growth of zero-emission vehicles at this time.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

How many Canadians have actually taken advantage of the net-zero vehicle incentive program?

[Michael Keenan]

We're very happy to have sent incentive payments to 70,000 Canadians so far.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

In a dollar value, how much actually was that subsidy?

[Michael Keenan]

That's a great question. I'm going to turn that over to Anuradha Marisetti, the senior assistant deputy minister of programs. She and her folks run the program.

Anuradha, could you tell us how much we've sent out so far?

[Anuradha Marisetti, Assistant Deputy Minister, Programs, Department of Transport]

Up to this point the funding was close to $300 million, and we've almost exhausted all the monies. We've already given out close to $290-some-odd million in terms of incentives. In December 2020 the Prime Minister announced a further $282 million for the program, which makes the program available to continue providing incentives to future users until 2022.

[Helena Jaczek, Liberal, Markham—Stouffville, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

Thank you, Ms. Marisetti.

Thank you, Ms. Jaczek, Mr. Keenan and Mr. Hanson, for a great round of questions.

We're now going to move to our next round. I'm going to try to get this last round in before time expires. We have, first up, Ms. Kusie for five minutes, followed by Mr. Bittle for five minutes, Mr. Barsalou-Duval for two and a half minutes, and Mr. Bachrach for two and a half minutes.

With that, Mrs. Kusie, you have the floor.

Mrs. Kusie...?

[Taylor Bachrach, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I'm happy to take her time, Mr. Chair.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Vance Badawey]

I think she might be having some audio problems. She's trying to reconnect.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

I'm sure I know what she was going to say, so maybe I can channel Stephanie.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!