Industry committee  That's right. The company assembles batteries using parts that come in from China, and then installs them in the trucks.

Industry committee  It's simply because no attention has been paid to the industry in Canada yet, whereas every country in the world is focused on it. Did you know that Volkswagen is going to have to buy 25% of the world's batteries by 2030? Canada won't even be in the running. We definitely need to get organized.

Industry committee  Right now, we need capital and entrepreneurs. Then we have to open a mine. As I always say, the real resource is the natural resource. When you have the ore, you can develop it at home. You can't open an anode manufacturing plant if you don't have graphite. You have to mine the graphite first and then open an anode manufacturing plant.

Industry committee  That is still the way it works.

Industry committee  We need to grasp the opportunity. A huge shift is coming in the green industry. Canada is a nickel producer. As you know, Sudbury was the largest nickel-producing area in the world and it was all sold to the Australians and the Brazilians. Now we're seeing a second boom and a shift to solar power, to 5G technology and to electric cars and buses.

Industry committee  First of all, we have these minerals. That's better than the United States. The North American Lithium Mine, which is up for sale right now, has drawn interest from two U.S. groups, one of which is funded by U.S. defence. Why are they interested? The Americans need both lithium and graphite for weaponry, and they don't have any in their country.

Industry committee  Absolutely. it's part of our vocabulary and our values. Everything will depend on the new owner. It will be a matter of setting out guidelines and saying what we want. The offer we've made for the lithium mine includes all stages of processing, right down to the product that will be used to make batteries.

Industry committee  You're absolutely right. This is why the new mining 2.0 is extremely inclusive. I've built mines in Africa; we've built mines all over the world, and now the social licence is very important. Though miners had a bad reputation for many years, we've changed considerably. The Canadian government is there with us, and all over the world, to make sure that we follow all the guidelines, and we do.

Industry committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. My thanks to all committee members for inviting me to appear. I'm going to take a very practical approach to the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. We've seen what Mr. Biden has proposed and we're seeing what Europe is proposing. Never in our history have we seen so many billions of dollars being spent on green economic recovery, and it all depends on critical minerals.