American President Donald Trump must understand that Canada is part of the “grand vision” to “put America back at the heart of the global economy,” according to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François -Philippe Champagne.
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“If you say no to Canada, indirectly, you will say yes to China for critical minerals. If you say no to Canada for oil, you will indirectly say yes to Venezuela. I don’t think that’s where the Americans want to go,” he argued during the show Le Bilan.
The latter assured that the supply chains, built over decades between Canada and the United States, would be very costly to undo.
“80% of semiconductors manufactured in the United States, final assembly is done in Bromont, Quebec. So, if you say: ‘we wanted to change that’, well, it would probably take 10 years and then it would probably cost tens of billions,” he illustrated.
-What we say is: if you want to achieve your objectives, Mr. President, that means working strategically with Canada, because we cannot undo what is natural,” he said. he continued.
Future of the battery industry?
Mr. Champagne said he was confident about the future of the battery sector in the country, despite the cancellation of the targets for purchasing electric vehicles, established by the Biden administration, by the new American president Donald Trump.
“We all know that one of the president’s greatest advisors is Elon Musk. And as far as I know, Elon Musk is president of Tesla. What I know about Tesla is that it sells electric vehicles and it’s the seventh largest market capitalization in the world,” he said.
Ottawa therefore intends to maintain its investments in the automobile sector.
“I talk to the CEOs of these companies. They said to me: “Mr. Champagne, when we invest, it’s not over four years, it’s over 100 years,” he said.
Watch the full interview in the video above
