Ten billion dollars is just a lot of money to me. I'm surprised there aren't more alarm bells going off everywhere when we've incurred a $10-billion unexpected expense. I know the government is saying, “Don't worry—we'll have a buyer for it.” They've made promises before, and I'm not convinced that there will be a buyer. As our previous members here have said, there needs to be an economic viability plan before this.
Further to the minister's comments, I have been involved in banking for 30 years. I do have a good understanding of what valuations are and what income-tested proposals would include. It's not as though I speak from a position of being uninformed.
I have another question. In my province of Manitoba, there's a silica sand project being proposed to extract some of the minerals needed for electric vehicle batteries. Is that something your department would be aware of and involved in?