As far as the Build Back Better Act is concerned, there is certainly a concern for the Canadian auto industry. After all, the reason we’re here discussing critical minerals is to ensure that the electric vehicle industry—cars, trucks, buses and even snowmobiles—can develop in Canada, but it’s also to make sure that the transition happens without job losses. We want to fight climate change and air pollution, while creating jobs. Right now, the concern we have with the Build Back Better Act is that the tax credit that will be offered to consumers who purchase an electric vehicle manufactured in the United States will jeopardize the manufacturing of light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles in Canada.
In an integrated market, such as the one between Canada and the United States, this goes against the so-called collaboration between Canada and the United States. As I mentioned earlier, we have heard and read that in February 2021, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau signed an agreement to collaborate on batteries and critical minerals. It would really be a loss and a mistake to send raw materials to the United States to have value-added products and vehicles manufactured there. We would be replicating the model that we have too often followed in the past, with our oil, our wood, our aluminum, our electricity. We want to create quality jobs in Canada, from mining to mobility.