Letter to the Minister of Industry and the Government of Canada

The Honourable Melanie Joly
Minister of Industry
235 Queen St.
Ottawa, ON K1A 0H5
ministerofisi-ministredeisi@ised-isde.gc.ca
CC: Office of the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources

Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs
Office of the Minister of National Defence
Office of the Minister of International Trade

Subject: Building Canadian Power in Advanced Battery Materials

We appreciate the Government’s efforts to build a more prosperous future. In the past two weeks the Canadian government has made significant policy decisions that could alter the course of economic development in Canada for generations. Prime Minister Carney, in his address to world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, outlined how Canada must drastically alter its interactions with other nations on the global stage. The Prime Minister’s address signaled that Canada can no longer rely on traditional trading relationships and must work to forge a path towards Canadian economic sovereignty through strengthening our own economic and industrial might while coordinating with middle power allies. This address followed a land-mark trade deal with the People’s Republic of China that will see a reset in our trading relationship, including a new quota-based system for the importation of electric vehicles. These actions will have significant impacts on Canada’s efforts to re-industrialize and build a future economy that can support our decarbonization, defence, and trade development goals.

It is essential that these policy positions be paired with strong safeguards for Canada’s emerging critical materials industry that Government and business have worked together for the last ten years to build. A key consideration must be critical minerals, their processed derivatives, and advanced technology that will make batteries for electric vehicles, energy storage, and defence applications.

Without the capacity to process our own critical materials, through Canadian controlled firms working collaboratively with Canadian miners and manufacturers, we risk a path towards performative sovereignty, whereby essential segments of future supply chains that drive our economy are beyond our control. A robust critical minerals strategy needs to be coupled with materials processing capacity to give Canada leverage in asymmetrical trading relationships and support Canada’s strategic autonomy in future economy and defence environments built on batteries and electrification.

Accelerate has worked with leading firms in the Canadian critical materials and battery materials space to develop the following urgent recommendations as your government now looks to the next phases of its industrial strategy.

 

Canada must develop a strategic approach to critical materials development. This approach would include:

• • Ensuring that future deals to secure foreign direct investment from Canadian trading partners in
    the production of batteries, electric vehicle batteries, or finished vehicles include provisions that require investors to work with Canadian critical materials producers and clear timelines for the attainment of specific levels of Canadian critical material content.

 

• • Ensuring that any future agreements on joint ventures in Canada for production of batteries, electric vehicle batteries, or finished vehicles include safeguards to support IP protection, requirements for Canadian materials supply at prices aligned with Canadian labour and environmental standards, and provisions to facilitate technology transfer to Canadian firms. Any deal must aim to increase Canada’s strategic independence and economic resilience and take into account previous manipulation of materials markets, agreements, and weaponized export limits in global critical materials markets.

 

• • Developing a strategy to amplify and expand Canada’s battery materials sector by coordinating with Canada’s peers to share best practices, co-develop IP, and create market access for Canadian battery materials.

 

• • Deploying a national IP strategy for Canada’s critical materials producers that would fast-track patent processing for technologies deemed critical to the national interest, including those related to battery materials and battery materials production.

 

• • Supporting the construction and growth of the market for Canadian produced critical materials through public purchasing, bilateral and multilateral agreements that secure demand and level-playing field for Canadian companies.

 

• • Supporting Canadian companies in maintaining and accessing US markets and long-term US trading partnerships in the battery and EV supply chain

 

• Canada’s critical materials industries give us global leverage when combined with Canada’s expertise and resource base. They will be a lynchpin of our future economy and support our national clean economy and defence objectives. It is now the time to include strategic support for this industry as the government looks to protect automotive and other advanced manufacturing sectors while re-aligning our trading relationships on the global stage. Strategic support for critical materials producers in Canada will amplify the investments made in recent years to support battery manufacturing and critical minerals extraction projects in Canada.

This will also support the objectives laid out in the Critical Minerals Production Alliance launched through the G7 last year. A strengthened critical materials sector will maximize Canada’s ability to add value to this alliance by positioning our nation as a supplier of not only raw materials but also the next stage processed materials that would differentiate us as an essential trading partner. We would be eager to meet with you at your earliest convenience to discuss these recommendations and the needs of this vital sector of the Canadian economy. We remain committed to helping grow Canada’s economy and fostering new investment into Canada.

Sincerely,

Chris Doornbos
CEO
E3 Lithium Ltd.

Dan Blondal
CEO, Director & Founder
Nano One Materials Corp.

Trevor Walker
President & CEO
Frontier Lithium Inc.

Trent Mell 
CEO & Founder
Electra Battery Materials

Andrew McKinnon
Interim CEO
Accelerate

About Accelerate ZEV:
Accelerate is Canada’s industrial alliance of key actors from critical mineral mining, batteries, fuel cells,and the public sector, labour, vehicle manufacturing and infrastructure. Together, we are building Canada’s Zero Emission Vehicle supply chain and industry to ensure it is a central part of Canada’s future wealth and prosperity.

Contact:

Andrew McKinnon
Interim CEO, Accelerate
andrew@acceleratezev.ca