I would like to say that, if we are concerned about some of the social and environmental practices China is pursuing to build out its battery supply chain, the answer should not be to slow the EV transition and give up on our efforts to address climate change. The answer should be to leverage Canadian innovation and ingenuity to do it better, cleaner and faster.
In terms of what would be in an EV battery supply chain strategy, I agree we need to find ways to accelerate the development of upstream portions of the supply chain. I see what the U.S. is doing. They are investing in a lot of battery recycling activities to get lower cost battery materials faster and in ways that are better for the environment. They're not waiting, necessarily, for the new mines that take 10 or 15 years to get online. They're also investing in those, but they're finding ways to innovate to reduce their reliance on China.
Similarly, they're investing in alternatives to graphite—China controls the global market—to make sure they have something they can offer instead. Canadian battery companies have a lot to offer, but they're struggling to scale up. We need to make sure that our approach to building up the supply chain is not only attracting multinationals to invest here but also standing up Canadian innovation and helping to scale up emerging Canadian battery leaders—which are often offering lower costs and more environmentally friendly ways of doing business.