Transport committee  We would really like to see a federal department named as the lead to help us establish what needs to be done with respect to a policy framework. A coordinated effort would be very helpful to avoid, potentially, some of the pitfalls we have seen with some of the ethanol protocols

Transport committee  Well, reasonable expectations are that I think aviation biofuels will fulfill about 5% of our total requirements. If you can grow it bigger, we would take more, obviously.

Transport committee  Offhand, it's maybe 6,000 or 7,000 litres, potentially.

Transport committee  No, that would be part of what's being discussed now.

Transport committee  How much crop is required to produce x litres of fuel? I have an idea. I don't have the figure with me. We can get back to you, if that's required.

Transport committee  That is a difficult question, especially when it comes from bioseeds. As I said, I think we have an idea; I just don't have the figures here today.

Transport committee  It's being looked at. Are we competing against canola? At the end of the day, it depends what it is competing against. Certainly what we do know is that 90% of the costs of biofuel, whether it's aviation or diesel, are the feedstock. So anything that can be done to reduce that co

Transport committee  For jet fuel in Canada? Forty-five per cent of our current jet fuel requirements are actually imported into Canada today. The rest is from the domestic refiners.

Transport committee  Thank you. Actually, the term “drop-in” is exactly that. The aviation biofuel looks exactly like and acts exactly like jet fuel. Currently the specifications today allow for a mix of 50%, a blend, and the newer technologies coming out are targeting 100% aviation biofuel. So some

Transport committee  There's no commercial-sized aviation bioreactor in place today. The recent incentives that the U.S. has put in place through the EPA RINS credit, I believe, will help incent someone to build something.

Transport committee  In the U.S. most likely, yes. And they are looking at our feedstock, of course. Canola is already sent to the west coast for production into biodiesel, for example.

Transport committee  My understanding is that there are a few biofuel refineries in Canada—

Transport committee  Ideally we'd like the cost of fuel to be lower all the time. In this case, aviation has globally committed to some pretty aggressive goals: 2% improvement on fuel efficiency year over year up to 2020; from 2020 on, carbon neutral growth; and then by 2050 to reduce our emissions b

Transport committee  Thanks for the question. That's part of the policy development. It is an area that is currently being looked at by the U.S.. In Canada we're participating, for example, with a group in Saskatchewan called Ag-West Bio, which represents the biofarming industries. That's exactly th

Transport committee  Yes, and there also aren't any priorities for aviation. I know that a lot of effort is invested in several types of biofuel, but in our case, we can use only one type.