International Trade Committee on Feb. 9th, 2022

[Dr. Karim Zaghib]

First of all, we need to know our market, by which I mean the market that includes all the provinces. Canada, like China, has a market. Once we know what that market is, we look at the gigawatt hours.

If our market is really slow in terms of transitioning to the electrification of transportation and energy storage, then we need to begin implementing an independence strategy.

This means that we should think about an international vision. It's important to focus on Canada's domestic market, as well as markets in the United States and Europe.

We really mustn't forget about Europe. Canada has all kinds of infrastructures, including trains and deep sea ports. Because of the traceability of our materials via a “green” stamp—we mentioned this in connection with aluminum earlier—we could become independent. We would be king of the hill here at home. Canada could export while respecting human rights and the planet. That's important. We could do it without any CO2 emissions.

That's the strategy.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

At the moment, most lithium-ion batteries are produced in China. Many European countries have built infrastructures for local production; Germany did it for Tesla, and Sweden for Volkswagen.

Why can't Canada keep up with countries that have fewer resources?

[Dr. Karim Zaghib]

Personally, I am well aware of what's happening.

In Europe, there are local European companies: Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Renault, Peugeot, and so on.

What Canada has to do is require Ford, GM and Toyota, which are not Canadian companies, to produce a quota of electric vehicles here in Canada.

It would also be important to find Canadian companies. I'm talking about Lion Electric and others. It's important. Other countries have their markets, their local companies and money. Canada is capable of investing, but it needs to speed up the development of young undertakings and new companies. They need assistance.

Companies in Canada also need to be taxed. Decisions are currently being made in the United States, Japan and Korea, rather than here in Canada.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Zaghib.

I don't have any other questions, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We'll go on to Mr. Sheehan for three minutes.

[Terry Sheehan, Liberal, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Thank you very much.

I thank all our presenters for testifying and providing us with some very good information.

I would ask Catherine from the Canadian Steel Producers Association to make two comments.

One is on what our presenters have been talking about, the low-carbon economy that the market is going to and what the steel industry, including in Sault Ste. Marie, is doing to get off coal. How many steel plants in the United States are still on coal? We know that the Chinese have a lot of coal production. Could we get some comments on that?

The second piece is again, just to reiterate.... In 2019, when the 25% tariffs or the “232s” were put on Canadian steel, what kind of advocacy, in your mind, really worked well that perhaps we should be continuing to take a look at when dealing with other trade irritants?

[Catherine Cobden]

Thank you for both of those questions.

We're on a very interesting and important journey in the steel industry. I talked already today about our existing green performance, but we have aspirations to do a lot more and ultimately address what is a very significant CO2 emission level to net zero. We have done some very interesting work in this space.

In particular, two significant projects have been announced in partnership with the government, of course, but also with others, to see six million tonnes of CO2 eliminated from the atmosphere. This is to convert to EAFs and to have future opportunities as well, perhaps with new feedstocks yet to be defined and developed in our country. It is definitely a journey that is going to take time, but it's one that is well under way and that we are very excited about.

You asked about the U.S. I think that's one of the reasons the U.S. and Canada have such a strong play together on climate and steel. They have done some EAF conversion. Again, back to my remarks, I want to say that I think we have a huge opportunity to do things right now with the U.S. on climate, particularly as they relate to steel and aluminum, because they have a EU road map. We need to follow that and grab that as soon as possible.

As far as the section 232 lift is concerned, this was a tremendous effort by many—industry, of course, but also government, as well as many horizontal organizations, provinces, and the federal government. We took a team Canada approach that you remember well, where we actually aligned and fought our battles. The government was prepared to stand up for the [Technical difficulty—Editor].

I'm seeing a lot of the same playbook this time around on the EV tax credit issue. At the same time, I'm reminding us that not only do we fight the battles but we also address those issues where we work together. Back to the climate comment [Technical difficulty—Editor]. We do everything in our power to show the world that we are very good trading partners. We want the U.S. to see that we are just as strict on unfair traders as they are and that we can basically work in lockstep with them on the battles we jointly share.

I hope that gave you a bit of an answer, Terry, to your question.

[Terry Sheehan, Liberal, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

Thank you very much.

Madam Chair, do I have any time left?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

No, I'm sorry, Mr. Sheehan.

[Terry Sheehan, Liberal, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

I didn't think so.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

All right. I want to take this moment to thank all of the witnesses for their valuable testimony.

Thank you to our members of Parliament who are attending. Everybody was on time.

I will move to adjournment. Thank you all very much.