Thank you very much.
To the members, thank you for the opportunity to speak.
I'm here as the director of strategy for StromVolt, which is striving to be the first North American lithium cell manufacturer in Canada. Initially we will serve the commercial markets for buses, material handling equipment, agricultural vehicles and perhaps marine craft. We are also fully capable of supporting automotive and light-duty trucks.
Just by way of a quick background, I am an auto person by background. In the last 15 years, I have been the CFO of two large, tier one auto suppliers, one being the largest harness provider to battery electric vehicles in North America. I continue to work today with the APMA , Accelerate ZEV, Trillium and of course with StromVolt.
The proposition we have will create something in the range of 1,500 jobs by 2030. We're very excited about that and looking forward to the conversation today.
Maybe just at a high level before the conversation, I would like to draw out a few points here. Certainly time is very short. Europe is 10 years ahead of us. Asia is probably 20 years ahead. Right now, there are a lot of good signs of things happening, but I don't see an overall strategy or who is actually driving that to make sure things happen.
On the other major point I'd like to raise, there was some earlier discussion about the impact of Buy America and the threat that poses to Canada. I would put to you that Europe is acting as one. China is obviously a very formidable competitor, especially with the fast start they've had. I strongly urge you to take advantage of our relationship with the United States and perhaps North America, but at least with the United States. Act jointly with them because we have a lot of what they don't have. We have leverage to make sure that the value add happens.
To me, a “made in Canada”-only solution is folly. It's a dream. It can't happen. It's not possible. Again, I stress that we need to work with our U.S. friends—our U.S. brothers and sisters—to effectively compete with Europe and with communist Asia.
Thank you.