Evidence of meeting #18 for Natural Resources in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was mineral.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Professor, Royal Roads University, As an Individual
I don't have any information about that specifically.
Conservative
Shannon Stubbs Conservative Lakeland, AB
Dr. Zaghib, do you know if there is any work going on to be able to scale up for auto manufacturers?
Strategic Advisor, Investissement Québec
It's the same answer from me. I am more on the science side, so if you have a question on the science side or process. But, sorry, on CUSMA, I'm not an economist, so I cannot help you on that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal James Maloney
That's okay, Doctor.
Thank you, Ms. Stubbs. Unfortunately, that's all the time you have.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal James Maloney
My pleasure.
Last in this round and probably last before we conclude with our witnesses is Ms. Jones for five minutes.
Liberal
Yvonne Jones Liberal Labrador, NL
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, everyone.
I want to thank the witnesses for your excellent testimonies today.
I'm the member of Parliament from Labrador, so mining is an old industry for us, but as we look at new mineral development and critical minerals going forward, we're seeing lots of interesting changes and tremendous optimism around where we're going.
My question is for Mr. Kucharski. It pertains to a Reuters article yesterday outlining that the Government of Canada has tightened the rules around foreign takeovers, especially as they relate to our critical mineral supply chain.
A while ago the Minister of Natural Resources announced that there is a list of 31 critical minerals. He mentioned that one of the criteria to be included on that list of critical minerals is that the mineral must be important for Canada's national security.
Can you explain why it would be dangerous for a country—and not particularly a friendly one—to own the supply chain for minerals critical to our national and continental security? I also ask if you could put it in terms of the larger historical context of a continental defence strategy. Could you speak to that a little for our committee today?
Professor, Royal Roads University, As an Individual
Okay, that's a big topic.
Critical minerals, and I talk about other strategic resources like uranium, so to use uranium as an example, that's certainly an important mineral used in the nuclear power and defence sector that we have had strict controls over for many, many years. There's a regime and protocols around that to prevent proliferation and so on.
I don't know if that's being thought of as a model by the federal government in any way, but I think that's some historical context for the protection of certain critical minerals. Now that we have a list in Canada, I think it's good that the federal government is targeting some of these critical minerals and ensuring that they use that as a filter when applications are made for investments in critical industries. We can use that in some cases to prevent certain countries that are perhaps not allied with our values and with the direction that we want to go in from making investments.
I think that investments in mines or companies that have some role in developing or processing critical minerals by a country like China would be potentially dangerous. They could use their ownership and control over those companies and resources to restrict or slow down the availability of those minerals to Canada and its partners and allies. In terms of market power, I want to focus more on the economics right now. A country like China that has these state-owned enterprises that are essentially subsidized by the state and strategically controlled by the Communist Party could exert influence anywhere in the world over how those resources are used.
This is the concern that I think the government has, quite rightly.
Liberal
Yvonne Jones Liberal Labrador, NL
Thank you for your response.
My next question, if I have time, Mr. Chair, is for Ms. Godbout. It has to do with training that will need to be done before workers can enter the mine and extract critical minerals.
I'm not sure what work you have done around this, but are there specialized training programs for different mining applications?
What recommendations would you have for the federal government around training and preparing workers for the workforce in the critical minerals sector?
Executive Director, Research Institute of Mines and the Environment
If I understand correctly, Ms. Jones, your question is about the need for specific training in critical and strategic minerals compared to other training programs.
The existing training programs can meet current needs for the most part. We have a highly skilled workforce that is trained through research and postgraduate studies at master's and doctoral levels.
There will definitely be a greater need for training for individuals who are going to work in our industry and help us develop the field, particularly in terms of clean technologies and processes to extract, treat, process and recycle these substances in an environmentally responsible manner.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal James Maloney
Doctor, thank you. There always seems to be one witness who ends up being the victim of my cutting them off more than the other. Today it was you, so I apologize.
Thank you, Ms. Jones.
Unfortunately, that's the end of the allotted time for our witnesses today. I want to say thank you, on behalf of the committee members, to all of the witnesses for coming today and providing very valuable information. As you can see, we could go on much longer than the time allocated, but unfortunately, that's all the time we have. Again, we want to say how grateful we are.
The witnesses are free to leave and then we can carry on to deal with committee business. We are scheduled to move in camera, but before we do that, I am going to release the witnesses and then we can have a brief discussion, if that's acceptable to everybody.
Thank you.
Executive Director, Research Institute of Mines and the Environment
Thank you.
Professor, Global Energy Law and Sustainability, Jean Monnet Professor in the Just Transition, University of Dundee, As an Individual
Thanks, everybody.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal James Maloney
The meeting is continuing.
The agenda, as everybody can sees, calls for us to go in camera to deal with some committee business, which we will do. However, there is this issue of Mr. Patzer's motion. Not to pre-empt anybody's appetite to speak, I understand there will be some objection to going in camera to deal with that, which is why I haven't jumped right into that portion of the meeting.
Unless I am wrong about that, why don't we proceed and deal with Mr. Patzer's motion, which was circulated shortly after our meeting on Monday? Everybody should have a copy of it.
Mrs. Stubbs, you have your hand up.
Conservative
Shannon Stubbs Conservative Lakeland, AB
Okay, thank you. You're so amiable. I thought I was going to have to be cheeky with you right off the bat.
Liberal
Conservative
Shannon Stubbs Conservative Lakeland, AB
Chair, it is my pleasure to be back with all of you on this committee, and to Richard and to Marc and to Paul, who I participated on this committee before, I am glad to be here. Thanks to my Conservative colleagues for keeping up the good fight on this committee.
Because I am substituting for Jeremy Patzer, I do want to move his motion at this time. I move:
That the committee invite the Minister of Natural Resources and officials to appear to consider the Main Estimates for a minimum of two hours, at their earliest convenience, but no later than May 14th, 2021.
Of course, that motion was put on notice and spoken to on March 22, 2021.
I think this is an important invitation. Probably there is no need to go in camera to discuss this aspect of your future committee business, although I understand why there would be a desire to block and delay the minister from appearing. It does seem to me, just from the point of view of an outsider and also as a person who was your friend and your colleague on this committee myself, that there is a—
Liberal
Conservative
Shannon Stubbs Conservative Lakeland, AB
Thank you, Chair.
There's really a glaring and striking lack of participation and attendance by the current minister at this committee, isn't there? I would just remind my friends that it appears that the Minister of Natural Resources has only bothered to appear at this committee twice since being elected in 2019. Once in December and then again, finally, this week. Apparently that was for one hour of supplementary estimates where he tried to cover the supplementaries and the mains together.
I would just contrast that, Chair, with our previous experiences on this committee together in 2016. The then minister was here three times on the mandate letter and then for both estimates. In 2018 he appeared twice, and then....
I'll wrap up soon. I just want to make the case as to why members of this committee should support the motion, Chair.
He appeared twice in 2018 and twice in 2019. I understand as an outside observer that the current minister didn't show up for the forestry study, despite your committee passing a motion calling him to appear. He didn't show up for his mandate letter—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal James Maloney
I am going to interrupt you. This is for your benefit, and not anybody else's.
I understand and respect what you're saying, and you're factually correct about previous ministerial appearances. However, because you're not a member of this committee, you might not appreciate that this minister has accepted every invitation to come here and has attended, with the exception of when his father died.
There were two times he couldn't make it. That explain the times you're referring to when he didn't come. Every invitation that has been extended to him has been accepted, and he has been here, with that exception. You weren't aware of that.
Conservative
Shannon Stubbs Conservative Lakeland, AB
Thank you, Chair. That is certainly a compassionate, understandable reason.