Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's a very fascinating discussion today. I'm joining you from Sudbury, Ontario. We call ourselves the mining innovation capital of the world, with everything going on here. There are nine operating mines.
Before I get into my questions, I find Mr. Zimmer's comments very interesting, because he was going down that road about takeovers here last week as well. Here I am in Sudbury, and back in 2007 we had two Canadian companies—Falconbridge and Inco—that were taken over by foreign companies. It was actually the Conservative government at the time that allowed it. Minister Clement actually said that Sudbury had to do that because it was the “Valley of Death” up here and there was no future in mining. Anyway, I just find it.... Thirteen years later, look at how our role has changed. We all realize the importance of hardrock minerals and metals and the importance it will have in our economy.
Again, thank you so much for joining us. There's so much I want to talk about.
I liked that expression, “from mine to sale”. Mr. Moores, I think you're the one who mentioned that.
Mr. Moores, what we're hearing a lot about here today is that we need to put in measures or regulatory policies to say—and I think most Canadians would agree—that we need to have a made-in-Canada solution and a supply chain that is in Canada. Now we're trying to determine what the gaps are, where the opportunities are, and what measures we need to put in place. That's what Mr. Zimmer was asking you about. What concrete measures do we need to put in place that we can provide in our report and give to Parliament?
What are countries other than China doing? I know that Australia is also looking at this very seriously. I know that they have engaged with Canada to see how we can collaborate. Very quickly, I want to know what other countries are doing in this space that we're not doing.
Mr. Moores, do you want to start?