International Trade Committee on May 3rd, 2021

[The Chair (Hon. Judy A. Sgro (Humber River—Black Creek, Lib.)), Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I call the meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number 28 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade. Today's meeting is webcast and is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of January 25, 2021.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108 and the motion adopted by the committee on Monday, March 12, 2021, the committee will commence its study of Canada's exports of environmental and clean technology goods and services.

As witnesses today, from Electric Mobility Canada, we have Daniel Breton, president and chief executive officer. From Heliene, we have Martin Pochtaruk, president. From Carbon Upcycling Technologies, we have Apoorv Sinha, chief executive officer and Madison Savilow, chief of staff. Expecting to connect soon, I hope, is the Canadian Nuclear Association with John Gorman, president and chief executive officer.

Mr. Breton, you have the floor.

Before you start, Mr. Breton, I believe Mr. Savard-Tremblay has a point of order.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

In fact, I do not want to raise a point of order. I just want to make it clear that Mr. Breton is the spouse of the director of my constituency office. There is no conflict of interest, but I wanted to be very transparent all the same. This will not change the work I am going to do today. I am also convinced of the professionalism of Electric Mobility Canada, which talks to all parties anyway. So it was only for the sake of transparency that I wanted to make that clear.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you, Mr. Savard-Tremblay, we appreciate that transparency.

Mr. Breton, you have the floor.

[Daniel Breton, President and Chief Executive Officer, Electric Mobility Canada]

Good morning.

We would like to thank the members of the Standing Committee on International Trade for their study on Canada's exports of environmental and clean technology goods and services.

Founded in 2006, Electric Mobility Canada is one of the world's leading organizations focused on the electrification of transportation. Our members range from Canadian SMEs to multinationals, including mining companies, vehicle manufacturers, electricity and charging infrastructure providers, technology companies, research centres, cities, universities, fleet managers, unions and environmental NGOs.

As such, Electric Mobility Canada is the national organization with the most experience and expertise to help advance thinking, regulation, and projects related to transportation electrification. Our members work on both components and complete electric vehicles, including cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, snowmobiles, boats or charging infrastructure. They have operations everywhere, from British Columbia to the Atlantic Provinces.

According to the “Global EV Outlook 2021”, published just a few days ago by the International Energy Agency, “Electric car registrations increased by 41% in 2020, despite the pandemic-related worldwide downturn in car sales in which global car sales dropped 6%.” According to Bloomberg's “New Energy Outlook 2020”, by 2025, EV sales will hit 10% of global passenger vehicle sales, rising to 28% in 2030 and 58% in 2040.

According to a newly released report by TD Economics, it is estimated that by 2050, between 312,000 and 450,000 of Canada's current 600,000 direct and indirect jobs in oil and gas could become casualties of falling demand for fossil fuel, as more countries and companies commit to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. According to another report, “The Fast Lane: Tracking the Energy Revolution”, from Clean Energy Canada, there will be approximately 560,000 clean jobs by 2030 in Canada, almost 50% of them in clean transportation.

According to a 2020 analysis by EMC—us—a Canadian electric mobility strategy, inspired by those of B.C., California or Quebec, could generate up to $200 billion in revenue between 2021 and 2030.

We, at EMC, are convinced that with all of its expertise plus its natural and human resources, Canada is in a perfect position to become a world leader in electric mobility, in partnership with its U.S. ally. However, there's no time to waste, since other regions, like Europe and Asia, are accelerating their investments in the EV industrial revolution.

EMC fully supports the Canadian and U.S. governments' agreement on the importance of the development of a zero-emission vehicle future and a battery strategy. That's why we recommend that Canada develops its own electric mobility strategy that includes a ZEV supply chain strategy, more charging infrastructure, ZEV rebates, education and training, and finally ZEV regulations, since voluntary measures won't be enough for Canada to reach its climate and ZEV adoption targets.

We also recommend that Canadian and American EV-related companies get access to our own strategic minerals and metals. We recommend that Canada doesn't end up just exporting its natural resources to where they will be transformed into finished products for electric vehicles, meaning that the added value will be outside the country. We recommend that Canadian EV products, technologies and services get access to the U.S. market.

With many members of EMC already exporting or about to export to the U.S., we recommend that we address the issue of the buy America act to see how both countries can work together on a North American EV strategy inspired by the one in Europe.

Finally, we recommend that we transition to green procurements as a way to help innovative companies in the EV industry in Canada and in the U.S. This is an issue that EMC addressed in its February 2021 document called “Public Procurement of Electric Vehicles, Recharging Infrastructures and Related Products/Services in Canada”.

That is why Electric Mobility Canada, in collaboration with other Canadian industry stakeholders, will formally announce in June the launch of a Canadian electric vehicle supply chain initiative to help accelerate Canada's industrial transition to transportation electrification. Later, time permitting, Electric Mobility Canada will make seven recommendations to accelerate Canada's economic recovery and exports through transportation electrification.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Mr. Breton.

We will move on to Mr. Pochtaruk, president of Heliene.

Please go ahead, sir.

[Martin Pochtaruk, President, Heliene]

Hello, my name is Martin Pochtaruk, and I am the president of Heliene.

First of all, I would like to thank Terry Sheehan, the Member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie, for his invitation to participate in today's meeting of the Standing Committee on International Trade.

Manufacturing in northern Ontario since 2010, Heliene is a real asset business with two core business lines that are synergistic. Each of these are positioned for significant growth as a result of the massive macro forces driving renewable energy production and the electrification of—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I'm sorry, Mr. Pochtaruk. You have my apologies for interrupting.

We need to suspend the meeting for five minutes due to some technical difficulties we are having.

I will suspend the meeting for a couple of minutes until we can get the difficulties corrected.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I call the meeting back to order.

Mr. Pochtaruk, please start again from the beginning, sir.

Thank you.

[Martin Pochtaruk]

Hello, my name is Martin Pochtaruk, and I am the president of Heliene.

First of all, I would like to thank Terry Sheehan, the Member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie, for his invitation to participate in today's meeting of the Standing Committee on International Trade.

Heliene started manufacturing in northern Ontario in 2010. Our business consists of two businesses. On one side is a core solar PV module business supported by a global supply chain and local advanced manufacturing capabilities that allow it to scale rapidly and arbitrage the latest evolving solar cell technologies to ensure that its products are always market-leading on quality and cost. Heliene is, in fact, the only tier one North American-based solar module producer, as listed by Bloomberg, due to its bankability.

The second business is an emerging value-added integrated solar-powered product business, leveraging the knowledge gained in solar power and technology integration, having developed and positioned to grow an innovative pipeline of critical renewable products. Heliene is, in fact, the only solar module producer in the world to have industrially produced solar modules that are launched to space in order to power satellites.

We're here today to review how the state of play of Canada's international trade relationships has impacted Heliene over the last several years. Specifically, Heliene has had to contend with several challenging developments in trade policy, first with China and, after that, more importantly, with our neighbour to the south.

On China, Heliene and another Canadian solar module producer, Silfab Solar, successfully prosecuted in 2015 an anti-dumping duty case against imports of Chinese solar modules into Canada; such anti-dumping and countervailing case was just successfully renewed for another five years last March. The United States began to restrict Chinese solar cell and module access to its market through the imposition of steep anti-dumping and countervailing duties starting in 2012 and then again in 2014. Heliene was a beneficiary of the U.S. import market restrictions as a Canadian producer. That is, Heliene's distinct Canadian-made products were viewed as both attractive and politically correct by our U.S. customers.

Regrettably, the state of play changed dramatically, and for the worse, beginning in 2017 with the arrival of the Trump administration. Following a section 201 safeguard investigation, the United States International Trade Commission and the Office of the United States Trade Representative conducted extensive investigations of the U.S. solar market and the role of imports in such a market. Heliene, together with other Canadian producers, successfully persuaded the ITC to recommend that the U.S. Trade Representative exclude U.S. imports of Canadian products from any safeguard relief adopted by the Trump administration.

Notwithstanding this, in a first among many firsts in the Trump administration and in blatant violation of the U.S. obligations under NAFTA, President Trump elected on February 7, 2018, to include Canadian solar modules within his four-year global safeguard measures. Specifically, of greatest consternation and adverse financial impacts to Heliene and Canadian clean-tech jobs, the safeguard imposed a declining tariff from 30% ad valorem on U.S. imports of Canadian solar modules. It pains me to say that this is the same safeguard tariff rate applied to imports from China.

This debilitative tariff against Canadian exports to the U.S., our main market, remains in force today despite the best efforts of both the Government of Canada and Canadian industry, though the tariff has now declined to 18% pursuant to a further presidential proclamation that yet again refused to exclude Canadian imports from the safeguard measures.

Our difficulties are particularly ironic, because today Heliene employs 80 people in Minnesota, where we invested in a new factory in 2018. We are now actively seeking to expand our solar module manufacturing operations there while in parallel we'll restart a now-defunct factory in the southeastern part of Florida. By the end of 2021, Heliene will employ over 140 people in the U.S. We have developed detailed plans to expand our solar module manufacturing operations in Ontario and also in the United States, in both Minnesota and in Florida, but the safeguard tariff on the Canadian-manufactured product continues to sap both our profits and our working capital.

As such, and to very blunt, Heliene has much less leeway to make its planned investments both in Canada and the U.S., to modernize its manufacturing operations, to expand its workforce and to increase its contribution to the heightened and imperative efforts now ongoing to reduce greenhouse emissions and combat climate change.

On our issue, on December 22, 2020, the Government of Canada requested dispute settlement consultations with the United States under chapter 31 of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement. However, the arrival of the Biden administration and the entry into force of CUSMA provided both Heliene and Canada with an opportunity for a reset in our relations.

My own view is that we can and indeed we must re-establish a co-operative and productive trade relationship with the United States. At the same time, Canada must also be firm in insisting that our neighbour adheres strictly to its CUSMA obligations. The current status quo on this issue, coming from the previous U.S. administration, is simply not acceptable and is costing Heliene and its northern Ontario employees dearly, as we continue to pay a U.S. import duty for our Canadian-made solar modules.

I look forward to continuing to work with you and the government to resolve this time-sensitive matter.

This concludes my testimony.

Thank you for your attention.

I am now ready to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much.

We'll now move to Ms. Savilow from Carbon Upcycling Technologies.

[Madison Savilow, Chief of Staff, Carbon Upcycling Technologies]

Thank you so much for inviting Carbon Upcycling to speak today.

Canada has an amazing opportunity to be a leader in the export of clean technology, both on an industrial scale as well as on a consumer level.

One of the strategies we've taken at Carbon Upcycling is to develop a consumer product brand called “Expedition Air”, which aims to bridge the gap between innovative climate solutions and the public perceptions of them.

By creating products made from captured carbon emissions, we make novel innovation accessible to consumers with the goal of de-risking the uptake of these technologies from a buyer perspective.

On a consumer product front, we've partnered with product developers and manufacturers from over six countries outside of Canada, showing global buy-in of these materials made from captured carbon emissions.

Our plan is to partner with larger brands to change the status quo on using these types of materials. We're currently in discussions with half a dozen companies that are interested in integrating Carbon Upcycling's materials into their supply chains. These partnerships, because not a lot of companies are doing this type of consumer work, would make us and, in turn, Canada, a leader in consumer products made from waste material.

I'll now pass it off to Apoorv to discuss more the industrial use of our technology.

[Apoorv Sinha, Chief Executive Officer, Carbon Upcycling Technologies]

Thank you, Madison.

As a nation of just under 40 million people, Canada has already done a fair bit in terms of investing in carbon utilization technologies and moving the needle to show how carbon can be reused to enable the circular economy that we think we need to be able to hit our targets for 2050 and 2100.

Over four of the recently concluded Carbon XPRIZE finalists were companies from Canada. These were companies that were changing carbon emissions into construction products and into plastic materials and a range of other end products such as those Madison mentioned for consumer product use.

Within the clean-tech sphere, the idea and the notion of how [Technical difficulty—Editor] in Africa and to a certain extent parts of Europe and the States, where costs can be the biggest driver.

Looking at this from an export perspective, what's important to note is that the normal way of trading goods and services across the border, such as having cars built in Ontario and sent over to the States, for example, is not something that translates very well to the context at hand. Instead, what is required is a long-term view as to what is required to build our society better and how to retrofit very long-term facilities, which run for anywhere from 30 years to 50 years, in a way that has a made-in-Canada tag on it.

One silver lining in the way the U.S. tackled the COVID-19 pandemic was Operation Warp Speed, where they were able to bring a whole range of resources together. Although their initial ways of curbing the curve weren't as effective as ours were in Canada, the way they were able to develop vaccines and build capacity to roll them out at a rapid pace is something that no one else in world has been able to achieve.

We think that with the types of opportunities Canada has already begun nucleating, such as the clean-tech export program, there is a foundational element there that can be further evolved into a longer-term partnership with our partners in Europe, the States and other parts of the world that are rapidly emerging and growing. Through such initial partnerships, companies such as ours can go out to those regions for two to three months at a time and look at identifying local partners. This could be done over a longer period of one to three years and enable companies with capacity issues, which most start-up companies have, to translate these partnerships and MOUs into longer-term engagements where businesses produce not only on the Canadian side but on the partner side as well.

I'd be more than happy during the questions to discuss some of the experiences we've had through CanExport and other programs, but I would like to finish by saying that the space around clean tech, and especially around circular economy and carbon emissions or carbon tech, is in a very exciting stage. Just in the last four months alone, we've seen major commitments come from companies such as LaFarge, Cemex and CRH, which are talking about reducing the carbon emissions of their products by 30% to 50%.

There are other companies in plastics and a range of industrial products that have come in and talked about scope 1 and scope 2 carbon emission neutrality by 2030, or in some cases by 2050. Within that scope, Canadian entrepreneurs have already shown that they can play a massive part in helping these companies enable their achievement of these targets. We're very excited about seeing how policy at the federal level can further support this.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Mr. Sinha.

We will move on to the Canadian Nuclear Association and Mr. Gorman, president and chief executive officer.

Mr. Gorman, you have the floor.

[John Gorman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Nuclear Association]

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss international trade and the opportunities associated with the export of clean energy technologies through the Canadian nuclear industry.

My name is John Gorman. I've been president and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Association for the past two years. Prior to that, I worked seven years as president and CEO of the Canadian Solar Industries Association. I've been a developer of renewable energy projects, sat on the boards of utilities and was Canada's representative to the International Energy Agency for solar. I've spent over 20 years championing Canadian clean energy solutions.

As the members of this committee know and recognize, international trade is and will be a key component of Canada's efforts in recovering from the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. International trade is also a key component to meeting climate change goals, especially the export of clean energy technologies that will assist high carbon-emitting regions in their efforts to reduce emissions.

In addition, there are significant geopolitical shifts occurring in international trade that represent opportunities but also the challenges that will impact all exporting sectors in Canada and beyond.

First, I'll give a brief introduction to the Canadian Nuclear Association and our membership. The CNA represents about 100 members across the nuclear industry. This includes uranium mining, nuclear utilities and CANDU supply chain companies across Canada, the majority of which are in Saskatchewan, Ontario and New Brunswick.

The Canadian nuclear industry is key to meeting Canada's ambitious net-zero and climate change targets. As witnessed at the recent climate leaders summit hosted by U.S. President Biden, world leaders, including Prime Minister Trudeau, announced new and ambitious emissions targets that will require a strong role for all non-emitting technologies, including nuclear. For our industry, this represents a global opportunity for larger CANDU reactors, promoting uranium exports that offset emissions. It also includes supporting technology development efforts for small modular and very small modular reactors that provide opportunities for developing countries, remote regions and high-carbon industries to reduce emissions.

The Canadian government has a significant role to play in partnership with the nuclear industry's efforts to deliver on the global transition to a low-carbon economy by promoting and helping to develop the industry in Canada, and then smoothing the path for the international sale of uranium and nuclear goods and services.

Nuclear power generation enables the clean electrification of other sectors and regions that have high carbon footprints. It also creates new economic opportunities that enable a clean energy transition that will bring economic and social benefits.

For instance, Cameco is one of the world's largest uranium mining companies and is the largest employer of first nations in northern Saskatchewan, which enables those communities to grow and flourish. Canadian uranium displaces the equivalent of some 550 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in greenhouse gases per year.

We're pleased that the federal government recognizes nuclear as being a key component of its climate plan, its hydrogen plan and its small reactor action plan. Its inclusion in key programs such as the strategic innovation fund and new net-zero accelerator that are administered by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada will go a long way to promote clean energy technology solutions in Canada and beyond.

There's a significant opportunity associated with enabling greater exports for nuclear. These include uranium exports and CANDU technology opportunities, as well as the emerging SMR or small module reactor market, all driven by the globe's efforts to meet the climate challenge.

Wherever there is a CANDU nuclear power plant in the world, it is essentially a potential opportunity to export Canadian services, know-how and expertise. I would argue, as would your trade commissioners, that each existing power plant represents a trade priority, as do new-build opportunities in existing and new markets such as Romania.

As well, there are opportunities to contribute to nuclear development beyond the CANDU brand, such as light water reactor development, waste-recycling fuel and reactors, fusion, waste and decommissioning, and the development of the isotope market.

For small modular reactors, or SMRs, the domestic opportunity here is about $5.3 billion between now and 2040. The world market is going to be between $150 billion and $300 billion a year in the same time frame. Canadian workers and communities benefit every year from the revenues generated by Canada's investment in nuclear technology. There are further export opportunities Canadians can pursue from exporting uranium, CANDU technologies and their supply chain, SMRs and isotopes.

Examples of our member companies who export goods and services in these areas include Cameco, based in Saskatoon, which mines some of the planet's richest uranium deposits and exports their products worldwide; BWXT, which is based in Cambridge and manufactures steam generators and other power plant components for export to China and elsewhere; L3Harris, based in Montreal and Dorval, one of Canada's most diversified defence and security companies, which makes control room simulators for power plants; and Nordion of Kanata, a leading provider of medical isotopes and other health technologies.

As committee members are likely aware, demand for clean energy is driving reactor technology to new frontiers: smaller and more advanced reactors. We liken this to the computer's transition from mainframe to laptop, a shift that dramatically changes, not only the device itself but also the range of applications it can be used for.

Canadians and our federal government established an early lead in small modular reactors with the 2018 SMR road map project. As the world looks for ever more energy and ever more clean energy, these versatile, clean units will be exported across national boundaries to meet real human needs. Our industry is very well positioned to be part of that story in the decades ahead.

Overall there is growing interest in key markets such as the Middle East, Africa, eastern Europe and Asia in Canadian technologies and in Canadian presence. Romania, a member of the European Union and one of our NATO allies, is a county that chose Canadian technology several decades ago, and the decision paid off. Romania has had cleaner air with a more diversified energy mix plus reliable, affordable electric energy that has helped raise its people's quality of life.

Now Romanians are interested in doing it again by building two more CANDU plants at its Cernavoda site, but there is also a risk that other countries will seize most of the benefit of this opportunity if Canada cannot bring adequate export financing to the table, commensurate with the potential scope of Canada's value-added to the project.

There is significant competition in the global nuclear industry, particularly from countries like China and Russia, whose governments fully support nuclear exports through sovereign funding. There are opportunities in working with like-minded partnering countries like the United States to create opportunities in countries such as Romania.

Canada now has an opportunity in collaboration with the U.S. to be part of this exciting multi-billion dollar project at Cernavoda, but it's bigger than that. Canada and the U.S. together can apply this model elsewhere in eastern Europe to sustain western technology leadership and compete with state actors, while also cutting GHG emissions and displacing fossil fuels.

The Canadian government needs to consider the following key points to enable more nuclear technology exports.

First, support Canadian nuclear export potential with financial support commensurate with that which is being offered by the U.S. and other countries with nuclear export potential.

Second, continue to include nuclear in domestic climate, innovation and economic policies.

Third, include nuclear clearly in trade promotion and trade policy discussions internationally.

Last, facilitate export permitting processes to be efficient to take advantage of market opportunities as they arise.

We look forward to working with the federal officials to ensure that the program's design and implementation meets the needs of the nuclear industry, which, in turn, will provide significant emissions reductions while enabling innovation and job growth.

As this committee discusses international trade for Canada and considers the role of the nuclear industry in its discussions, it is essential to understand that Canadian uranium exports and Canadian nuclear technology exports, specifically CANDU, have played a very significant role in enabling the development of key sectors in Canada. It has also enabled Canada to have a strategic asset in the nuclear industry that enables geopolitical discussions regarding trade and international relations.

There is a significant opportunity for Canada to enable a greater role for the nuclear industry in terms of trade that would meet multiple goals: reducing emissions globally, increasing exports, creating more jobs, and fostering and reinforcing strategic relationships internationally.

Thank you. I look forward to any questions the members might have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Thank you very much, Mr. Gorman.

We'll go to Mr. Lobb, for six minutes, please.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to everybody who is attending the meeting today.

My first question is for Mr. Gorman.

In the small modular reactor market, where are we positioned in this country to really take advantage of that? What are some of the companies or technologies out there that are leading the way?

[John Gorman]

First of all, Canada really does have a first-mover advantage with small modular reactors. This is because of the extraordinary initiative that has been undertaken by government and industry to coordinate their plans and to lay a pathway forward that involves the utilities, the federal government and four of the provinces, the premiers of which have signed a memorandum of understanding of development and deployment of small modular reactors. It also includes our regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, which is quite literally a competitive advantage for Canada in the small modular reactor market.

We have begun to see some funding through the federal government and through SIF, the strategic innovation fund, for certain technologies, which is promising. However, we're going to need to see the federal government match the industry's contributions to this very detailed plan that we all share for Canada's leadership in the development and deployment of small modular reactors.

The United States and the United Kingdom, while less organized than us on the SMR front, are beginning to bring some significant funding to the table and they will soon catch up. Therefore, there's a bit of “co-opetition” going on here.

Lastly, to your question about technologies that are in Canada right now, we're the leading nation in the world in terms of the number of technologies, both home-grown and international, going through our review and licensing process right now. We have 12 different technologies suited for different applications that are going through the process.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Thanks very much.

In regard to the CANDU work that would be around the world, what is the total dollar value of the licensing work and maintenance work for CANDU every year? What are some other opportunities as far as new builds with CANDU technology in the next 10 years are concerned?

[John Gorman]

Thank you for the follow-up question. I do not have the information regarding the annual revenue generation coming from the CANDU reactors and the work we have going on in seven different countries around the world right now, but I will ensure to follow up with the committee to provide that information.

In terms of future CANDU work, the one that is most immediate is the Romanian opportunity that I mentioned. There are other countries that are actively exploring CANDU technology. The Americans have recently committed $8 billion to pursue the Romanian opportunity, and they are looking to Canada for a contribution of between $2 billion and $3 billion so that we can jointly build these two new units and refurbish their existing units.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Maybe give the committee an idea of the potential possibilities with isotopes and cancer therapies around the world. I don't know if you have those numbers as to what the potential is for that, but I think Canada is really the world leader now in isotope production for cancer therapies.

[John Gorman]

Canada is the world leader in isotope production for nuclear medicine, primarily in the treatment and diagnosis of cancer. It is also used in a wide variety of other nuclear medical applications, including everything from diagnostics to sterilizing one-use medical equipment.

We are doing some extraordinary innovation in nuclear isotopes right now that stems from both this long history we have with our nuclear laboratories that have been producing isotopes through various lab-scale reactors, but also very exciting work that is happening now with our conventional reactors, in particular our CANDU reactors in Ontario, where innovations have allowed new forms of isotopes to be produced at a much higher scale on the conventional reactors without interrupting operations. The collaboration that is happening between our laboratories that are doing work on the isotope front and now the operators of our CANDU reactors is creating more opportunities for different isotopes at higher volumes to supply to the rest of the world.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Do I have time for one last question?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

You have 50 seconds, Mr. Lobb.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

My question is for Electric Mobility Canada.

Obviously, we have a lot of raw materials that would go into the different components of an electric battery.

Beyond the raw materials, does Canada have a competitive advantage in any particular sector at this point in regard to electric vehicles?

[Daniel Breton]

I'm sorry. My microphone was not placed correctly. Let me start again.

Yes, we do have advantages, because there's a lot of knowledge and know-how in Canada regarding electric mobility, whether it's for trucks or buses. We now have electric snowmobiles coming from Canada, so we have an advantage.

Since we have the resources, the research centre and the assembly capacity, we really do have an advantage.