Yes, exactly—when it began eight hours ago.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I just want to say that, again, we're interested in facts. We've said from the very beginning that there are 2,500 full-time, permanent jobs building batteries at the battery plant that are going to local, Canadian and unionized workers. We know that there will be up to 2,300 construction jobs in building the battery plant. Those will go to local, Canadian workers. We also know that close to 50% of the jobs for the installation of equipment will be going to local, Canadian workers.
Those are the facts, and we're interested in establishing and sharing those facts and supporting those facts with Canadians because this is good news. It's not just good news for Windsor. It's very good news for other areas that have landed a battery plant thanks to federal leadership, whether it's the Umicore battery plant near Kingston, the Northvolt battery plant in Montreal or the battery plant in B.C. We are eager to share the good news about the thousands of jobs that are being created in those communities.
At the same time, in the industry committee, we've already stated that we are interested in making sure that the information about the contracts is shared with MPs. We voted for that. There are six studies being conducted at the industry committee to study those investments.
Again, like I said, our interest is to make sure that facts and information are being shared with Canadians because, again, these are investments that are changing the future for communities like ours, communities that, eight years ago under the Conservatives, had 11.2% unemployment. Today, we have workers working, and we have 2,500 permanent jobs coming to communities like mine.
I just want to say, at the same time, that we also want to balance the information in the contracts with the fact that we don't want put these investments at risk. We know that there's commercially sensitive information in those contracts. We want to make sure that we don't risk the current agreements and investments but also future investments that we know are on our doorstep. In the case of Windsor, we know that there are billions of dollars on our doorstep from suppliers that want to locate in Windsor. They want to supply the battery plant. We just want to make sure that we're not taking any false steps that put those additional investments in jeopardy.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.