Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to touch upon two issues.
First is the jurisdictional issue that my friend on the other side of the table keeps referring to. My difference is that, when the Liberals proposed this change, pushing Canadians into an EV mandate, it's not a black and white thing. You cannot push everything on the provinces and also say that this jurisdiction belongs to the provinces so we cannot talk about these issues in this committee.
Yes, we can talk about anything in this committee if it has any ancillary effects on.... The federal government announced that it is going to go strong on an EV mandate. It is going to penalize normal Canadians with $20,000 per vehicle if they make their choice and they don't want to go for EVs.
We want to make sure that the provincial grids are strong enough, or what agreements the federal government is going to make to ensure that the provinces are ready for it. That is my difference from the member opposite. It's not a black and white issue, per se, that this is provincial jurisdiction and we should not be talking about it at this committee.
Second, it's not clearly an industrial thing. The Liberals are pushing to take the combustion engine out of the market. It is a science issue. The technology—the innovation of battery cells—is a science issue. It's not an industry thing, in my opinion. We should also be mindful of that.
Thank you.