The Aluminium Association of Canada (AAC) is pleased to announce the completion of the initial phase of its strategic traceability project initiated two years ago.
“From the outset, we would like to salute the decisive role of the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages, on behalf of the Government of Canada, through the funding provided by Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions announced on August 19, 2020. This recognition by the government of the strategic importance for our industry of ensuring the traceability of our Canadian production, has enabled us to achieve a world first, tailor-made for our industry”, underlines Jean Simard, President and CEO of the AAC.
The industry is proud to announce today the completion of the pan-Canadian deployment of a cloud-based authentication platform adapted to our industry and developed in collaboration with the Quebec-based Optel Group. Initiated in 2020, following the conclusive results of two pilot projects carried out in 2019-2020 and supported by the Government of Quebec, this traceability project will initially allow the Canadian aluminium industry to certify the authenticity of the Canadian origin of the primary metal.
Back in 2018 the US – Canada tariff dispute raised the issue of the provenance of the metal entering the United States from Canada. It was from this moment on that the AAC worked with the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, then responsible for relations with the United States, to put in place innovative solutions to ensure the authentication and traceability of the aluminium produced in Canada.
“We have succeeded, in collaboration with our members, the governments of Canada and Quebec as well as experts in cloud-based solutions, to deploy a modern digital solution allowing us to initiate traceability, offering protection of the integrity of exports from primary production plants to the authorities concerned, and helping to consolidate the commercial value chain of our strategic markets,” concludes Mr. Simard.