Environment committee  Exactly. We'll do that using a technology we call “vehicle to home” and “vehicle to grid”. So vehicles will serve as power and energy sources. That will be the case of trucks and buses in particular. You already see that in regions in the United States where electricity rates are very high.

Environment committee  Thank you for your question. The Strategic Innovation Fund is an extremely promising program that's already in place. The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry came to our annual conference two weeks ago to discuss what interest there might be in creating a national transportation electrification industry.

Environment committee  That's an interesting question. People don't realize that increasing numbers of electric vehicles can be preprogrammed to recharge at night. Demand for electricity occurs during the day, not the night. Demand is high mainly between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. In many parts of the world, vehicles can be preprogrammed to recharge when electricity is cheapest or demand is low.

Environment committee  Absolutely. That's what we've seen elsewhere.

Environment committee  It's because manufacturers send the vehicles where there are mandates. It's as simple as that. I can give you two examples. Right now, if you want to purchase a Toyota RAV4 Prime, you'll be able to get it in Quebec because there's a ZEV mandate. You won't be able to get it elsewhere in Canada.

Environment committee  Actually, there are two very interesting companies in Canada that work on recycling batteries. Now they have technologies that can recycle up to 95% of the components. That's very good, first of all, and one thing you cannot recycle is oil. Once it's burned, that's it. There's a real market for that.

Environment committee  It's quite simple. When you look at electric vehicle sales, you tend to focus on cars, but they also include trucks, transit buses and school buses. There are various types of vehicles, including electric and hydrogen vehicles. The Quebec government has announced that it wants to have 1.5 million electric vehicles on the market by 2030.

Environment committee  I haven't. I can't. All of them have included.... To us, what we see as the best pattern is to have rebates—subsidies—for the purchase of electric vehicles, as well as regulation. They go hand in hand. With regard to the last question you asked, I remember when Toyota came out with the Prius 23 years ago.

Environment committee  Yes, actually we have. We support some kind of rebate for used EVs or PHEVs in Canada. Actually, there is a rebate in B.C. There's one in Quebec as well. For people who can't afford or don't want to pay for a brand new vehicle, whether a gas vehicle or an electric vehicle, getting people to come on board with EVs or PHEVs that are used is not an issue for us.

Environment committee  This is very important because, believe it or not, I've been talking about a Canadian EV industry strategy since 2006. As I said, as time goes by we're going to switch more and more towards EV for light-duty to heavy-duty vehicles. More and more studies are coming out. One from ICCT came out a few months ago saying that if Canada doesn't have a strategy, doesn't have a plan for an industry, whether it's for light-duty or heavy-duty vehicles, we might end up having no automotive sector 15 to 20 years from now.

Environment committee  The study published in 2019 on atmospheric pollution states that it has an impact of $114 billion a year. That's a recent study, from barely a year ago. It suggests that large quantities of atmospheric pollution comes from transportation and that road transportation—light, medium and heavy vehicles, buses and so on—make a significant contribution to that pollution.

Environment committee  Yes.

Environment committee  I have the answer to that question.

Environment committee  That's an excellent question. You're ultimately talking about the entire vehicle lifecycle, that is, production of the vehicle, including its battery, use and disposal. On pages 8 and 9 of the brief I sent you on Monday, we discuss an analysis that was conducted by the National Research Council of Canada.

Environment committee  Yes, that's correct.