As you know, the government has adopted the Canadian critical minerals strategy. A number of departments are involved in that strategy, including Natural Resources and Industry.
The funds available to our department to invest in the projects total $1.5 billion. We want to move projects forward that are aligned with our supply chains and with new emerging industries in Canada, including batteries and electric vehicles.
We are interested in everything you described. We are working with businesses to open new mines, make them more green, reduce greenhouse gases, and implement new technologies. We are currently negotiating with several mines and a whole range of actors in this sector.
As well, it is sometimes necessary to connect the big corporations with the mines. That kind of comes down to the question of the chicken and the egg: if there are no mines, there are no companies, and if there are no companies, there are no mines. So we do a bit of matchmaking between the actors. Since we work closely with auto and plane manufacturers, among others, we are in a position to match them up like that. That is another of the roles we play.