We need to grasp the opportunity. A huge shift is coming in the green industry.
Canada is a nickel producer. As you know, Sudbury was the largest nickel-producing area in the world and it was all sold to the Australians and the Brazilians. Now we're seeing a second boom and a shift to solar power, to 5G technology and to electric cars and buses. All those technologies will depend on critical metals. We must own them. Otherwise, we will not be part of the 2.0 economic revolution. First came the oil boom of 1910, and now we're seeing the green oil boom of 2020. We can't let this opportunity pass us by, because the minerals belong to us. They are ours, and we need to keep them, not sell them.
Whether they are from Australia or from somewhere else, buyers have a strategy based on their needs, their economy, and what they are going to produce in their country. The only way to be involved and get in on this 2.0 boom of the green economy is to be an owner. Otherwise, it will not happen. We will end up selling minerals like they were trees, and we will see our resources processed in the same way: they will be made into boards in the U.S. and sold back to Canada. I don't want to say that is what's happening, and I certainly don't want to speak for my colleagues in the forestry sector.
However, nowadays you cannot sell lithium, nickel or cobalt, have it processed somewhere else and buy it back. That makes no sense anymore, especially since the best minds are in Quebec. You know, the mining world is scouting for Quebec, Ontario and Canadian minds, because that's where the most qualified people are. Are we going to go work around the world and let others come into our home? That would make no sense. But that's what is happening right now. The Chinese, the Australians, the Brazilians and the Turks are buying up natural resources around the globe, and we're not reacting.
I'm pleased to have been invited to appear today to highlight this issue. A very big shift is happening. We need action from the government and the community. That action absolutely requires those who manage and control things to live here in Canada, not abroad.