Industry committee  The concept is mines to mobility here. Let's say we're going to take what we do in the automotive sector, which is predominantly making internal combustion engine vehicles on platforms that are shared around the world, and around the world we're going to shift, both from a regulatory standpoint to mandating zero-emission vehicle market percentages to industrial policy.

Industry committee  We have a lot of resources here. We don't have the capital—

Industry committee  —currently deployed to take those resources, process them and turn them into cells. We're currently working with governments at both levels, in Quebec and Ontario, on deploying that capital or developing that capital strategy to get there.

Industry committee  That's right. It's also about the demand to date. Regardless of our ambitions, the market demand is about 3%, and those production decisions are made by Japanese and American companies that make vehicles here in Canada.

Industry committee  We have an enviable volume of critical minerals in the ground here in Canada. We have upstream companies that could do the battery assembly, such as Martinrea, which has done a joint venture with a company called NanoXplore to form a battery company, VoltaXplore, in Quebec. They need processing help.

Industry committee  By definition, these assets aren't Canadian as the term pertains to how we source parts that are compliant in the trade agreements we have. Nothing we could have brought in—if it was profitable, which it isn't—from this potential mine in Argentina would have furthered that. What we need to do is set our critical minerals strategy around the extraction and processing of those critical minerals here in Canada.

Industry committee  That is 100% correct, and let me just expand on this. We're doing a lot of navel-gazing, I think, on the potential for the use of lithium from Argentina. I practise this every day. I was part of the CUSMA rewrite. We cannot use lithium from Argentina in the production of vehicles in Canada, the U.S. or Mexico and still meet compliance with the CUSMA-USMCA rules of origin.

Industry committee  Absolutely, the type of lithium matters. All auto companies and parts suppliers are in the business of who can build the longest-lasting and longest-range battery, so the chemistry is important and the specific recipe by each company is important to listen to. If the companies say they won't use it, they're not going to use it.

Industry committee  Sure. I have two more sentences. There are many ways to do our part in combatting China's increased dominance in this space. Picking a fight over assets on the other side of the world is not an action that our industry would recommend, given the current fragile nature of trade between our countries in automotive.

Industry committee  Thank you. Thank you to the chair and members for having me to this committee again. I'm very happy to be preceded by my former professor at the University of Toronto, where one of my first lessons in international relations was the Taiwan Strait crisis. That was the first real foray into the U.S.

International Trade committee  Currently, all automakers have mandates for sourcing from women-run suppliers. Past agreements have reduced the regional value content and reduced supplies and volumes that are bought from Canadian base supply. This one increases them, so indirectly here, it's a wider opportunity, with more content coming from Canada and more women-run suppliers able to bid into those carmakers' purchases.

International Trade committee  Some of you served here with my father.

International Trade committee  That's right. I spent my 16th birthday with him up here in Ottawa. My mother, who was going to university at the time—she went back to university—came home and made me a tiramisu. We knew that my father was doing honourable work, and it's a pleasure to be with some of his colleagues here.

International Trade committee  We work in a just-in-time business and on very thin margins, so we're always concerned. That's a matter of concern every day, whether the CBSA from day to day, year to year, is ready. The question will be this: When the uniform regulations get released with the description of parts in those agreements, will they match HS codes that are easily processed?

International Trade committee  The short answer is yes, but there is a longer answer. The timing is dictated by Washington. Washington has been in an absolute hurry, because of course there's an election season and the president would very much like to take credit for gains on the USMCA. We've asked the same questions to the CBSA.