Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I would like to get some comments on preferences. I'm going to give an example.
On June 21, 2021, Minister O'Regan launched a call for proposals under the $1.5-billion clean fuels fund. Minister Wilkinson announced some of the potential recipients on November 14, 2022. For just this program, if somebody applies to it and gets a positive response 16 months later, they still have to negotiate the contracts. I'm very concerned about the delays in Canada's response to the IRA.
In the Durham Region, we have St. Marys Cement, a great company and a great employer. As you know, these companies—your members—are international. They can do their work anywhere. American firms, because of the certainty in the United States, are already ordering the big equipment to make these projects. Given the concern with supply chains around the world, if we don't get our act together and if we're waiting until the budget maybe in April.... We had a great opportunity in November to give certainty.
We are up against the biggest competitive disadvantage we've ever seen. We hear comments like what Mr. Robertson said: that we need to get our own act together. We've heard that we should stop the self-inflicted wounds with the naughty or nice list that the government tends to have.
Mr. Auer, maybe you could explain what a reasonable response would be right now and what message the Canadian government could give out to industry as a response to the IRA. How quickly should we put it in place? Also, what suite of policy instruments should we be considering right now?
My concern is that decisions are being made now. There are shovels in the ground in the United States, and if we're waiting another three, four or five months to get this certainty out—if it's even in the budget in the spring—we'll be losing probably the greatest potential investments—generational investments—that we could ever have.
Could you give us an idea of what we need to do now?