Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 14, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba B5 TUESDAY JANUARY 14, 2025 ● BUSINESS@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM BUSINESS Manitoba UMO recycling company EnerPure seeks rapid expansion in wake of third-party engineering report ‘Massive milestone’ for micro-refinery tech F OR more than 15 years, Todd Habicht’s company, EnerPure Inc. (formerly HD Petroleum), has been working at proving up the engin- eering for his patented used motor oil recycling technology. A third-party engineering report re- leased Monday does just that. With billions of litres of used motor oil (UMO) burned or improperly dis- posed of annually in North America, Habicht’s small-scale UMO micro-re- finery has long been seen as an import- ant solution to a global problem. Although the Winnipeg company has raised about $40 million over the last 15 years — Habicht believes EnerPure is the only company in the province to max out on access to both the Small Business Venture Capital Tax Credit program and the Community Enter- prise Development Tax Credit program — Habicht knew he had to complete all the engineering design details before he would be able to commercialize the technology. But he’s there now. “This is a massive milestone for us,” said Habicht, EnerPure’s founder and CEO. “We had to get the engineering complete.” Now the company’s goal is to have 21 plants built in North America over the next six years. It has an 80 per cent-scale pilot plant operating just south of Morris, where it has produced more than one million L of marine-grade motor oil that has been sold to international shipping company Maersk. “Maersk has said in writing that they would take every drop we could pro- duce that could be accessed from any port in the world,” Habicht said. The first commercial plant is slated to be built in Alberta. Habicht would not say exactly where, but added the environmental licence application is underway and arrangements have been made for access to the UMO feed stock. In addition to the environmental benefits of having regional micro re- fining of UMO (internal estimates are each EnerPure plant will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 16,000 tonnes), the costs of EnerPure’s tech is said to be about five per cent of current technologies. (There are couple of very large UMO recycling operations in Canada: Safe- ty-Kleen operates one in Breslau, Ont.; GFL has one in West Vancouver.) Each EnerPure plant will cost about $15 million to develop, the company said. “Our financing and engineering focus remains very much on the de- ployment of our full-scale commercial recycling plants, after our pilot plant proved our processes, technology and business model,” said Damian Towns, EnerPure chief financial officer. “Our next capital raise has the po- tential to be a defining moment for the company by providing the required capital to complete and commission its Alberta recycling plant, generating a recurring revenue stream for the first time in EnerPure’s history.” While there has been massive subsid- ization for the production of bio-fuels, EnerPure never qualified for any such funds. “We as an entity have always been a round peg in square hole,” Towns said. “We are not a bio-fuel company.” Habicht said he long resisted the sug- gestion to do a public offering because he was well-aware of the R&D neces- sary before there would be any chance for returns. He believes the company is now at the point where he can go to more sophis- ticated investors seeking larger sums. “There’s just no way I could have spent time worrying about returns when I knew I needed to get the engineering completed.” Originally, the design was to produce diesel fuel from UMO, but, about five years ago (around the time the com- pany changed its name from HD Pet- roleum), there were changes made to the international standards for diesel. Habicht said the company undertook an internal study and determined mar- ine fuel was the most appropriate tar- get market for its technology. Jurisdictions around the world have various types of collection systems in place for UMO. In Manitoba, it’s the Manitoba Asso- ciation for Resource Recovery Corp. No one was available from MARRC for comment Monday. Habicht believes throughout North America, only about 20 per cent of UMO is actually recycled. The rest is disposed of in all sorts of ways that cause pollution, including the contam- ination of fresh water. martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca MARTIN CASH SUPPLIED EnerPure CEO and founder Todd Habicht. The Winnipeg company has recently converted used motor oil into one million litres of marine-grade motor oil. Thompson-Winnipeg bus route gains competition, cost concerns THE route between Winnipeg and Thompson has gotten busier — and the low ticket prices its commercial bus lines are charging is not sustainable, an industry expert warns. Greywolf Bus launched Dec. 26. It’s offering a $50, one-way ticket promo- tion for passengers in January. The offer is simply a limited-time promotion, underlined co-owner Muhammad Tanveer. Greywolf Bus wanted to draw people to its five-bus fleet trekking the 9 ½-hour drive from Thompson to Winnipeg. “(This is) kind of our advertisement,” Tanveer said. He and co-owner Naveed Butt ha- ven’t yet decided when the promotion will end. It will likely last throughout January, Tanveer estimated. A typical one-way ticket may land at $80 or high- er next month. However, it’s hard to raise prices when the competition is charging roughly the same fare, Tanveer noted. Thompson Bus and Freight dropped to $55 per one-way ticket for its own January promotion. Usually, the pas- senger and freight company charges at least $100. Siddharth Varma, the company’s chief operating officer, asserted the deal has nothing to do with Greywolf Bus’ arriv- al. It’s simply for customer appreciation, not unlike past offers, he added. “We see (Greywolf) as a healthy com- petition,” Varma submitted. “It’s good for passengers to have options.” Regardless, lowered prices can lead to cutting corners on safety, said Kas- per Wabinski, founder of Coast to Coast Bus Coalition and owner of Kasper Bus Lines, a company with ties in Manitoba and Ontario. “The best price can win the custom- er over … that works if you’re selling TVs,” he said. “If a TV breaks, nothing really happens to you safety-wise. “When it comes to transportation, people can die. It’s a lot more serious.” Thompson Bus and Freight has been accused, in the past, by customers and former staff, of running its buses with little heat in the middle of winter. Northern residents visiting Winnipeg for hospital care are among its clientele. But the company is following Mani- toba’s rules and regulations, Varma said. It just acquired a new bus and has plans to purchase two more later this year, he added. A provincial carrier profile shows Thompson Bus and Freight operates an average of 10 buses. The company’s National Safety Code rating has been knocked down to “conditional” status, which brings increased government scrutiny. Thompson Bus failed two Commer- cial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspections and logged five out-of-service in- spections, as per its profile. It hadn’t passed any inspections. The “conditional” ranking followed a need for operator improvement, mostly regarding monitoring hours of service, said Manitoba Transportation Minister Lisa Naylor. Since being flagged in July, Thomp- son Bus has come into compliance “pretty quickly,” Naylor said. Condi- tional status comes with monthly safe- ty monitoring by government officials. “We are trying to support businesses to operate … as safely as possible on our highways,” Naylor said, adding Thomp- son Bus must “wait out” its conditional safety rating. There’s a three-year minimum wait before a new audit, Naylor noted. Meantime, Wabinski has advocated for national regulation of the industry. Creating a board to rubber stamp busi- nesses before they enter the market — and ensuring companies have sol- id plans for sustainability — would be beneficial, even at a provincial board level, Wabinski said. “It seems to me like we’ve gone back in time,” he added. Naylor said she hasn’t fielded any re- quests to reinstate Manitoba’s Highway Traffic Board, a quasi-jurisdictional regulatory tribunal that supervised transportation safety. It was disbanded in 2019 under the Progressive Conserv- atives; most of the board’s functions moved into the province’s transporta- tion department. “We’re always reviewing safety and how we can do things better,” Naylor stated. Greywolf Bus prolonged entering the commercial bus industry because of past competition, according to Tanveer. A number of such businesses sprout- ed after Greyhound’s departure in 2018. Many have closed, including Maple Bus Lines, which once ferried passengers and packages between Thompson and Winnipeg. Greywolf Bus occupies Maple Bus Lines’ former office at 936 Sherbrook St. The two companies have no relation, Tanveer said. Maple Bus Lines owner Lori Mann didn’t respond to questions by print deadline. Greywolf Bus aims to “provide a good service” to the North, Tanveer relayed. The company has upwards of 10 staff; Tanveer expects the employee count to grow. Greywolf Bus didn’t have a public provincial carrier profile as of Monday. Tanveer’s goal includes expanding to The Pas and Saskatchewan and Al- berta. He declined to share his back- ground, adding it’s not in the bus sector. Kasper Bus Lines launched a regu- lar route from Winnipeg to The Pas, through Dauphin, in late 2024. gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com GABRIELLE PICHÉ JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES New business Greywolf Bus has entered competition with Thompson Bus and Freight for passengers on the 9 1/2-hour drive from Winnipeg to the northern Manitoba city. Canadians’ financial stress ramping up despite interest rate cuts: MNP HALF of Canadians are $200 or less away from being unable to cover their monthly bills and debt payments, ac- cording to MNP Ltd.’s quarterly report on consumer debt. “Despite interest rates decreasing, people are still concerned,” said Grant Bazian, president of insolvency firm MNP. The survey, conducted by Ipsos, found fewer Canadians expect their debt situation to improve in the coming year while a growing number believe it will worsen. More than half say they don’t think they will be able to cover all their living and family expenses in the next year without accruing more debt. MNP’s Consumer Debt Index, which measures Canadians’ attitudes toward their debt and their ability to pay their bills, dropped to the second-lowest level since it began tracking in 2017. Meanwhile, Canadians’ personal debt rating hit an all-time low. A third of respondents said they are insolvent, with women more likely than men to be $200 or less away from insolvency. “I think that they just have so much debt and it’s just becoming harder to service,” said Bazian. “Canada is one of the highest of all the western nations in the world for the debt ratio … the volume of the debt is catching up to people,” he added. Canadians are also feeling job anx- iety, with two in five respondents wor- ried someone in their household could lose their job. Bazian said that figure is the highest it’s been in the history of this report. Despite declining interest rates, Canadians’ disposable income is still shrinking and many feel unprepared to handle a potential unexpected big financial event. “We’re still having a growing number of people anticipat- ing that their financial situation will worsen, that they’re going to have a harder time paying off their debt in the future,” said Bazian. — The Canadian Press ;