I'll try to pick up again.
We were talking about building value-added midstream and downstream activities that utilize the minerals. When we talk about value chains, there are a lot of different connotations. Essentially, we're talking about building the value-added, all the way from exploring to discovering, to developing, to smelting and mining and processing, to creating the minerals and metals that are needed as inputs, to products and then to actually utilizing those things.
Earlier we would have spoken about the difference between and the importance of supply and demand and the linkage between the two things to connect the dots. This is an easy example as we think about electric vehicle batteries, where Canada has all the materials and minerals. We have a world-leading mining sector and research community, as we've heard. We have a strong and integrated automotive economy and we have much expertise in these areas, in addition to plenty of renewable and affordable energy. Together, these form a value chain that would enable Canada and its partners to work more collaboratively.
The other part that we would underline about critical minerals is that they are a pan-Canadian opportunity. Critical mineral activities or critical mineral potential is seen across the country. It is not concentrated in one region, but rather regions that are interconnected between the north, south, central Canada, western Canada and of course running north-south with our partners in the United States and east-west to partners in Asia and Europe.
This is why NRCan has been working together with other partners across the federal system to build value chains and to focus our attention on how we can develop and further advance working more collaboratively to achieve outcomes. One such example is the battery initiative, where we've conducted consultations with partners at Innovation, Science and Economic Development on what is necessary and what is needed for Canada to succeed in this space.
It certainly has been demonstrated—and we have heard—that a concerted action in each part of the value chain is necessary. We call this the “mines to mobility” approach.
Moving forward with this in mind, our work on critical minerals takes advantage of a whole-of-government span across many departments and many layers and levels of expertise, both in and outside the federal government. Our work with our provinces and territories as partners, and full partners, is through the “Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan”, which is a pan-Canadian strategy developed with the provinces and territories that lays a vision for a stronger, more competitive Canada in the mining sector.
We are also working together with our provinces and territories as partners in a new task team that we've built around all-Canadian critical minerals and battery value chains. This is an important area in which Canada...and our efforts are working to develop a finalized critical minerals list for Canada. It is a list that identifies which minerals and metals are of strategic importance. Our partners in the United States, the European Union, Japan, South Korea and Australia all have such lists and are using them to orient investment, to identify strategic assets and to prioritize decision-making to support critical mineral projects and industrial chains.
Beyond Canada, our current collaboration with the United States is already a positive success story. We have a critical mineral action plan with the United States that provides us with a solid foundation to continue our work with the new U.S. administration and to advance mutual objectives on clean energy supply chain security and economic recovery. We are equally working bilaterally with the EU and Japan.
There is much more to say, and I'm sure other experts have already added. I'd like to conclude by saying that I'm joined here by my colleagues from NRCan. We are looking forward to responding to your questions and providing more information on our actions as we help achieve a vision for working together to make Canada a success in critical minerals.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.