Transport committee  It's the Canadian motor vehicle safety standards that have to apply. You can't buy a European car if it doesn't meet the safety standards. So European carmakers sell thousands of buses here so they can modify their vehicle to comply with the CMVSS. But if we're purchasing a hundr

Transport committee  We'd like to purchase these vehicles. For one year it's not worth the million dollars that an electric vehicle might cost. They produce a lot of electric buses in Asia, Japan, and Korea, but to European standards, because the Europeans are most likely to purchase these vehicles i

Transport committee  Certainly we lack funding right now to do these projects. There is no funding for public transit work. We've discussed the fact that financing is looked at on a provincial basis. Why is that? It is because there's no federal money to help us, so we have to analyze it on a provinc

Transport committee  The regulatory measures are our biggest hurdle right now. We'd like to attract foreign companies to invest in building buses here, or to help us by bringing the technology that they have abroad. If there could be any type of encouragement to do that, that would also help us.

Transport committee  Well, there were three Canadian bus manufacturers. There are now two. It's not a Toyota, it's not a big brand, so they don't have millions of dollars to invest in developing these technologies. They're forced to do little projects and try, as best they can, to get together an ele

Transport committee  It's a case of our either accepting their regulatory measures or modifying our own to comply with their measures. I am referring specifically to lengths, angles, types of windows, and other safety issues. I mentioned the bumper a while ago. The bumpers are good for five kilometre

Transport committee  It's for the nine transit authorities, including STM. We do joint procurements when we purchase buses. The buses that are used in Quebec City are the same as those used in Montreal, except for the colours of the seats and the exterior.

Transport committee  It started actually when Montreal Transit was purchasing a high volume of vehicles. Trois-Rivières, which purchased 20 buses for three years, wanted to buy into the contract. So STM was buying buses for everyone, but at some point they said, well, this is a full-time job and a fu

Transport committee  I worked for Transport Canada in the past, and they have very strict rules. It's hard to change any of them. It would be a major overhaul and a major introspection for them to look at the European standards, compare them with our own, and then decide to accept what the Europeans

Transport committee  It has to be close. The proximity is essential for that type of technology.

Transport committee  Well, if you're an inch too high, you're not going to get the....

Transport committee  Sure. We could do that. We will do it.

Transport committee  When it is used, a natural gas-powered vehicle produces greenhouse gases. These are carbon chains. In addition to CO2, you have to look at the gas molecule itself. A gas molecule may escape along the way while the vehicle is being fuelled or repaired. A CO2 molecule leaving the v

Transport committee  That is correct. We do not necessarily want to buy vehicles manufactured outside Canada or North America. That is not the objective. There are currently products available only in those locations. The authorities do not know exactly what technology they will want to adopt or wha

Transport committee  This is something important. François explained that IREQ had developed new battery technologies that have been used by others, not necessarily under licence. So when we study those products, we will obviously have to comply with the patents. Here, however, we have no finished p