Transport committee  Very quickly, I think Brian is correct that we need to anticipate and that we need to have clear leadership in different areas. These issues are complex. It comes down to issues of drivers maxing out their time when they do get into a holdup situation. We need infrastructure like the Gordie Howe bridge.

Transport committee  I would say that over time we have constantly faced disruptions in the supply chain. Famously, the automotive supply chain is a just-in-time supply chain, and there's no inventory on the floor of our vehicle plants. We count on everything arriving just in time. That has been challenged because of climate change effects, as we saw in British Columbia, and impacts on ports.

Transport committee  It is.

Transport committee  No.

Transport committee  You don't have to convince my company. We have them pouring toward us. If there are people who have orders, the only reasons people are getting slow orders are the other things we were talking about, like supply chain issues with semiconductor chips and the like. You have a shortage problem outside of the Lower Mainland in British Columbia.

Transport committee  I don't think Honda would mind my pointing out that we have a partnership for electric vehicle development and batteries in North America. At General Motors, we decided to go to pure battery electric and not skip steps with gasoline vehicles that also have a little bit of battery support in them.

Transport committee  First of all, I completely agree with what Mr. Kingston just said. Being able to move Canadians to electric vehicle purchases is not simply a function of pushing demand. My company is all in on electrification. We're going to have all of our light-duty vehicles electrified by 2035, and we have a slew of them coming into the market right now.

Transport committee  We were first among the auto companies to make a significant processing announcement, but we're certainly not the only one. There are a number that are moving quickly. We see that different provinces are moving in this area, but they're doing so because of their constitutional responsibilities.

Transport committee  I will answer your question in English. The investments we're making are being made with our suppliers and in joint venture. These are new supply chains in many ways. In the electric battery world, much of the supply of what has gone into electric batteries has been sourced traditionally from Asia, in places ranging of Indonesia to China, etc., so we have a really historic opportunity to localize the electric vehicle battery industry in North America.

Transport committee  I'll chime in. I'll build a bit on something Dave Miller said. We are facing waves of inconsistency, so you get what you plan for. In terms of resiliency, we work very closely with incredible partners in the rail industry and others to be able to very quickly respond when things take place.

Transport committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the invitation to speak with the committee and for your interest in our story at General Motors Canada. As you may be aware, GM Canada is making large investments in Canada with the reopening of our Oshawa plant and the transformation of our plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, to be Canada’s first full-scale electric vehicle manufacturing operation, starting later this year.

Industry committee  I agree entirely with Don. There are always opportunities for countries that are smart and really make the basis for success in their areas. Jim talked about some of those areas, and we've talked about some of them ourselves. The other big factor is that the auto sector is not only going through a massive transformation just to accommodate the new CUSMA, but we're also going through a massive technology transformation at the same time.

Industry committee  I can tell you that I had occasion to use it just recently, because were participating in a research program that the government put forward to improve the site. They asked users to walk through different scenarios and give feedback on how easy or hard it was to use. In particular, we looked at PPE.

Industry committee  We found some very good ways to improve it. I give the government credit for going out and looking for ways to improve it.

Industry committee  If I can answer that to start off with, first of all, thank you for driving an electric car from Chevrolet. We intend to see a huge turnover of our General Motors fleet into electric vehicles, from pickup trucks down through the entire fleet of vehicles we offer. We are building an enormous battery plant in Ohio right now.