Absolutely. We see this as a national security issue. If we don't make sure to maintain some control over our strategic mineral resources, we may not be able to ensure our Canadian supply chain for the electrification of transportation.
There are precedents for this. You spoke about aluminum. I remember that, in the 2000s and 2010s, in the United States, some businesses wanted to buy an oil company, which I won't name. The United States federal government said that it wouldn't allow these businesses to acquire the company for national security reasons. In Canada, we can remember talk of potash being purchased by foreign interests. However, Stephen Harper's Conservative government decided to block the sale for reasons of national interest.
Although we're talking about the electrification of transportation, when we discuss critical and strategic minerals and rare earths, we're also talking about electronic issues, meaning electronic products that we use more and more often. We're also talking about military issues. A few years ago, the Pentagon pointed out that we were losing control for strategic reasons. The Pentagon said that, if we didn't wake up, we would end up with China, which had stopped letting these strategic minerals out of the country for reasons of national interest.
For strategic reasons, the agreement between Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau was potentially to determine how Canada could ensure that it didn't end up in a position of dependency, as was the case with oil in the Middle East in the 20th century. This type of position could cause major international geopolitical tensions.
We believe that this issue must be looked at very carefully.