Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ministers, thank you for being here today.
You're probably anticipating what I'm going to be speaking about: the importance of supply chains. They are the backbone of our economy. Supply chains connect our industries. They connect our communities. They connect countries. I want to speak about the fact that you can't manipulate supply chains. They are what they are. Production and sales happen in certain parts of Canada, but they also cross borders. With that comes the need for them to be very seamless and to flow with fluidity. Therefore, as Minister Freeland mentioned earlier, there is a need for capacity building within those supply chains. We've seen, in recent years, global challenges—the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions and climate change—that have exposed vulnerabilities within our supply chains.
Question one is with respect to their importance and how you see us moving forward to create more supply chain resiliency, efficiency and sustainability, in order to create economic growth and community impact amid these global challenges.
The second question is very relevant to supply chains, as well. It's on the importance of our national and bilateral relationships—especially with the U.S.—and, with that, the mechanisms you see moving forward so we can look at integrating our economies and sharing capacity building, infrastructure investments and capital investments. How can we create more global competitiveness together than apart and have resiliency to the disruptions I mentioned earlier, such as the pandemic? Lastly, affordability is also very important to us. In the States, it's important to them, as well.
Are there opportunities not only to add capacity and invest but also to utilize other strategies with other countries, such as those in the EU? For example, there is the carbon border adjustment mechanism. What do you see, and how do you see us moving forward, with all of that said?
I'll start off with you, Minister Champagne.