Honourable members, Madam Chair, thank you for inviting us as a witness on the IRA.
IRA is full of opportunities for Canada as it onshores demand from within USMCA: solar power, nuclear power, advanced manufacturing, home energy supply improvement, home energy efficiency upgrades, EV incentives and U.S. postal service electrification. There is nearly $400 billion U.S. in new and accelerated market opportunities for a primary metal producer like Canada, which exports 90% of its world-class production to the U.S.
As North America moves from onshoring to friend-shoring in its value chains restructuring, from critical elements and materials to strategic suppliers base, Canada stands in a class of its own.
We have the critical materials, including aluminum, to enable the green shift in the U.S. economy. We have both the human and carbon footprints to meet best-of-class criteria, including the democracy criteria, as shown in the slide with our brief that was produced from data developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit. When aligning aluminum-producing countries along with their carbon intensity, supply chain surety and democracy score, we stand above the pack with Iceland, Norway and Australia.
As shown in the second slide, authoritarian regimes represent 78% of the total production in the world. Coupled with carbon considerations, it makes the addressable supply for buyers increasingly limited, thus highlighting Canada's unique combination of qualities.
However, in order to reap the rewards of these developing opportunities, we will need to accelerate existing assets modernization. Our governments, both federal and provincial, should seize the moment to leapfrog into the future by setting forth an enabling fiscal environment to incentivize massive industrial modernization.
As we shared with the House Standing Committee on Finance, the staying power required to remain in the forefront of the best-of-class will come through increased competitiveness in a fast-changing global industry. Government must look over and beyond traditional loan programs and grant access to some existing fiscal provisions, such as accelerated depreciation of capital expenditures, while revamping existing trade-compliant programs.
At last, this is not a race to the bottom; it's a race to the top and towards the future. Let's rise to the occasion.
Thank you.