Thank you, and congratulations, Chair, on your appointment.
I sometimes have to put my foot in and say that Ms. Lapointe is not the only person representing “base metal Canada”. Her neighbouring riding has many mines in operation. I just want to say that we'll take any of your workers to get our new projects off the ground.
I hear this line that it takes 10 years to get a mine off the ground because of regulatory issues. I've never met anybody in mining who took less than 10 years to put a mine in, spending billions, because it is an enormous investment.
Mr. Moffatt, I want to ask you this. Volkswagen has put $7 billion into the battery plant at St. Thomas to build batteries for a market that hasn't been fully established yet. It's not up and running in a way that I'd like to see. They have to have a supply chain, which is an issue as well. We know that we have an advantage in Canada over Europe, which would love to have these battery plants, but they don't have the supply chain. Is the Chemical Industry Association ready? Are they in discussion with the battery plant manufacturers? Are we set to provide the supply chain necessary to get these battery plants into operation and make this market happen? A $7-billion gamble is a huge undertaking.