First of all, thank you for the question. I think the critical minerals space is an exciting one for Canada going forward. I want to thank the member for her work on this file and the discussions that we've had about this, and certainly for the continued advocacy on the part of her constituents.
In supplementary (B)s, we requested $10 million, as you noted, to advance our early work on the development of a critical mineral value chain. That initial investment supported the creation of the critical mineral centre of excellence and also targeted research and development relating to upstream critical minerals processing and battery precursors. The funding provided and the work being done in this sector represents an enormous economic opportunity not just for extraction and processing but also for downstream applications around batteries, electric vehicles and other things.
Certainly we see the centre of excellence playing an important supporting role in Canada's critical minerals strategy that is presently under development. I look forward to talking about that a little more as we move forward.