Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee, for the invitation to appear today.
My role here is to focus on the Indo-Pacific dimension of all of this. I'm drawing on the work of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada on critical minerals, economic security and Canada's partnerships with countries such as Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, the Philippines and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. A list of the relevant APF Canada publications on these topics—and there have been quite a few in just the last year—has been submitted to the clerk of the committee, along with the notes for my opening remarks.
Energy security, in all its aspects, has been a core focus of our successful Canada-in-Asia conferences. As mentioned by Ms. Exner-Pirot just a few minutes ago, we have been convening this conference annually in Singapore since 2023. Clean tech has also been a theme in that conference, and it has been a main theme of our long-running series of trade missions to Asian markets for women-led businesses.
My main message today is that Canada's clean economy export potential is real but uneven. We have world-class assets in uranium, hydroelectricity, clean grid expertise, mining, selected critical minerals, nuclear know-how and responsible governance. That said, export success depends on turning these assets into operating capacity, bankable projects, committed buyers, processing capability and durable partnerships.
First, on nuclear technology, as you know, Canada is already a leading uranium exporter. Canada has deep CANDU expertise and growing interest and capability in small modular reactors, but reactor exports require sovereign-level financing, licensing, regulatory compatibility, non-proliferation arrangements and other things, as you will hear, so the constraint is not really technology only. It's whether Canada can package a complete national offer in a highly competitive environment with other capable players.
Other witnesses will speak to the specifics of these efforts in the nuclear sector. From our work at APF Canada, I can attest to the strong interest in Canada's nuclear capacities that I hear about directly from governments in the region. A promising step already under way is the nuclear energy initiative of the Canada-ASEAN Business Council, which is working with AtkinsRéalis—and you'll hear shortly from Mr. Smith—and key higher education institutions, such as Humber Polytechnic and Ontario Tech University. Countries in Southeast Asia are starting from scratch on nuclear power, and they need to begin immediately, not only to prepare the regulatory framework and regulatory capacity but also to train the workforce that will be needed. Both of these are areas of world-class Canadian strength.
Second, on clean electricity, the principal opportunity in Asia is not to export Canadian electricity itself. It's to export our clean grid expertise and clean electricity embedded in products and services. This includes low-carbon industrial goods such as green aluminum and steel, hydrogen and ammonia derivatives, data centre services, hydroelectric engineering services, grid management and utility-scale project delivery.
ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, offers a significant opportunity in this regard. It has a regional agenda to expand and interconnect power systems through an ASEAN power grid. My APF colleagues and I have heard directly from senior ASEAN officials—including the deputy secretary general of ASEAN at the 2026 Canada-in-Asia Conference, at which he was a keynote speaker—about their keen interest in Canadian know-how and technology related to the development and management of long-distance electricity grids.