Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Fast, for your thoughtful and really well-considered position on this.
As do you, I think everyone on the committee shares the interest in Canada's participation in the transition to battery technology and everything that means. In fact, Mr. Lemire has some mines in his riding that will become very important in this transition. In my own riding, there is a significant battery research operation led by Dr. Jeff Dahn, who has been awarded the Governor General's award for his work on batteries. I think we all share this desire for us to participate in this transition.
After learning a little bit more about lithium, I now feel that the position taken by the Conservatives, while well intentioned to protect Canada's interests, was a little hasty, seeing as we now know some of the details about the mine itself. For example, it's a mine of lithium carbonate, not lithium hydroxide. What's the difference? We don't see the difference written in the media anywhere, but lithium hydroxide is what we use in batteries and what's relevant to semiconductors and the automobile industry and so forth. The mine in question is actually a lithium carbonate mine, which is irrelevant to that kind of manufacturing, to batteries, to autos and to semiconductors.
This is combined with the fact that this really is not a Canadian company; it's an Argentinian company. Its directors are in the U.K. I believe it may have had three Canadian employees on paper, but really the only intention, the only reason it had any Canadian toehold whatsoever was to have a presence on the TSX in the hopes of raising money.
I think far from there not having been a review, as has been reported, the department actually did do a review, and these are the things they found: that, in fact, it's not lithium relevant to Canada's national security interests, and it's not really a Canadian company.
My thinking here, then, is this: Wouldn't it be a much better use of this good intention that we all share—including you, Mr. Fast, with your motion—and a much better use of our committee's time to instead focus on the critical minerals study that I tabled the notice of motion for back in December? I'm not mentioning that it was me because I want any credit for it, but my point is that it's already tabled. The committee showed great support for that, and I think the subcommittee was just waiting to schedule it.
My invitation to my colleagues of all parties on the committee is that now that we know that this particular transaction is irrelevant to national security interests and, in fact, to Canada's battery future in any way, and that it's not really a Canadian company, why don't we focus on doing the right thing for the mines in Mr. Lemire's riding, the right thing for the researchers in my riding and the right thing for Canadians overall, and instead do the full study of critical minerals as has been tabled with the committee?
Thank you, Mr. Chair.