Toronto, Ontario
Check against delivery
Good morning, bonjour à tous.
Merci, Laurel [the Honourable Laurel Broten], pour l'introduction. It's great to be here - at the world's largest mining conference - held right here at home, in Canada.
I start most of my speeches similarly, because I have always been someone who cuts to the chase.
There's an obvious elephant in every room these days. We are at a hinge moment in Canadian history. Everything - from our economy, to our sovereignty, to our climate, to our democracy - is being tested. In fact, the whole world is experiencing what our Prime Minister so aptly called a rupture in the world order.
Let me repeat that: We are facing a rupture in the world order.
The illusion of a stable, rules-based global order is not fading - it has been shattered. We have been launched into a harsh environment where geopolitical competition is intensifying and major powers feel few, if any, constraints on their actions. The strong will do what they can and force the weak to suffer what they must.
Supply chains are being rewired. Strategic competition is intensifying. Capital is being repriced. And minerals - once treated as background inputs - are now central to power, economics, defence and the race to net zero. At the same time, critical mineral supply chains are being weaponized against us.
A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. And as the Prime Minister made clear in Davos, it would be a mistake to count a middle power like Canada as just a passive bystander. Instead, we are leading a strong response, driven by principled pragmatism, and other countries are following suit.
I start my remarks here today not because I think it is something those in this room do not understand, but because there is perhaps no sector where this moment matters more than mining.
But before we speak about strategy and capital, we should remember something fundamental: This country was built by miners!
Long before we had critical mineral lists and industrial strategies, Canadian prospectors were exploring the Canadian Shield with little more than crude maps and resolve. They were flying bush planes into the Yukon and Northern Quebec before airstrips existed. They began drilling through bedrock in Sudbury, Thompson, Labrador City and Flin Flon in temperatures that would stop most operations cold. They staked claims in places that were not yet named on maps. They built towns where there was nothing but forest and tundra. They ran railways across some of the harshest terrain on the planet. They strung powerlines through the wilderness. They financed projects others called impossible. They didn't wait for someone else to provide the resources that the world needed.
Canada delivered.
Gold discoveries in the Yukon and Red Lake helped build our North. Canadian nickel powered the industrialization of North America. In World War II, International Nickel Co. of Canada and its employees in Sudbury and Port Colborne supplied 95 percent of all Allied demands for nickel. Uranium from Saskatchewan helped define a new nuclear energy era. Potash from the Prairies improved crop yields all over the world.
That daring is what made Canada a world-class mining nation.
Under this government, we are deliberately bringing that spirit back. We are building again, and we are moving to get our resources from mine to market at a pace Canada has not seen in generations.
This is a new era for Canadian mining - one where our resources once again sit at the nexus of our economic security, sovereignty and global influence.
This morning, I want to do three things.
First, I will lay out the investment case for Canada. Second, I will explain how our government is advancing mineral development at home and working with allies abroad under three pillars: economy, security and sustainability. And third, I will announce a major set of deals under the Critical Minerals Production Alliance - mobilizing capital at scale and reinforcing Canada's role as reliable partner and the anchor of allied supply chains.
Canada's Mining Sector
Today, Canada produces 60 minerals and metals at approximately 200 mines from coast to coast to coast. We are the world's leading producer of potash, second in uranium, third in palladium and a top-five producer of eleven other critical minerals.
In 2024, this sector supported 724,000 jobs. It contributed $156 billion to our GDP, representing five percent of Canada's total economy. Mineral exports reached 200 countries, accounting for 21 percent of Canada's exports.
Canada attracts 20 percent of global exploration spending, and the TSX and TSXV account for 46 percent of global mining equity capital raised. Canadian-headquartered companies account for 38 percent of global non-ferrous exploration budgets.
As someone who spent decades in capital markets, let me frame this clearly: Canada's investment proposition has never been stronger. We offer world-class geology; deep, liquid public markets; stable regulatory institutions; strong environmental standards and Indigenous partnerships; and political continuity.
Few jurisdictions in the world offer this mix. In portfolio terms, that combination lowers risk. It enhances project bankability. It improves project IRRs, NPVs and payback periods.
Economy: Prosperity From the Ground Up
Our government has promised to build Canada into the strongest economy in the G7.
Mining is foundational to that objective.
The sector invested $22 billion in construction and capital equipment in 2024, representing six percent of non-residential capital investment in Canada. That investment creates jobs and builds infrastructure - roads, transmission lines, ports and processing facilities - that supports long-term productivity and economic growth for Canada.
Through the Major Projects Office, we are catalyzing more investment and changing how nation-building mining projects move forward. Projects such as Foran's McIlvenna Bay Mine, the Red Chris copper mine expansion, Nouveau Monde Graphite and the Sisson Tungsten project have been referred for co-ordinated federal decision-making as part of a package of projects worth over $116 billion.
For investors, this new approach means clarity and predictability.
We are also improving our entire permitting regime writ large with the urgency that both long overdue action and this specific moment require. We have tasked the MPO not only to streamline permitting for projects referred to the Office but also to collect best practices to be applied across the federal system.
Tomorrow, I will formally launch a tool on NRCan's website that will help mining proponents from Canada and abroad navigate Canadian permitting by providing a clear roadmap to federal permits and approvals and to project-specific guidance and legislative requirements and by connecting users to key contacts at the right federal agencies.
Finally - and perhaps most significantly - since our government was elected, we have signed or advanced toward One Project, One Review agreements with Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI, in addition to our existing agreement with B.C.
This is how we are getting our country building again: alongside Canadian workers and international partners.
Budget 2025 reinforced this approach with:
- a Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund to support strategic projects;
- a First and Last Mile Fund to close infrastructure gaps and enhance project economics;
- expanded tax credits: both the Critical Mineral Exploration Tax Credit and the Clean Technology Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit, which now cover twelve additional minerals; and
- a Productivity Super-Deduction, with incentives for all new capital investment and a 100 percent deduction in the first year and immediate expensing for manufacturing and buildings.
I also want to highlight that mining is central to economic reconciliation. Today, more than 17,300 Indigenous people in Canada work in the minerals sector, representing 11 percent of mining's labour force. Industry and governments are working with Indigenous partners to grow Indigenous equity participation, driving prosperity for today and future generations.
This is industrial policy designed to crowd in capital and accelerate growth. This is why allies and industry around the world are investing in Canada. In fact, within the first year of our mandate, this government has attracted the greatest international investment Canada has seen in the past two decades.
Globally, Canada is a mining and minerals powerhouse. Canadian-based firms hold $353 billion in global mining assets, across 95 countries.
In trade negotiations and supply chain realignment, our resources matter. Our critical minerals are cards in our hands - giving us an advantage as we engage in the world as it is, not as we wish it to be.
Security: Sovereignty and Industrial Strategy
Moreover, as we all know, critical minerals also underpin defence systems and technologies, advanced computing, telecommunications and clean technologies - to name just a few applications. Mining in the North also reinforces our Arctic sovereignty and long-term strategic presence, both of which are major priorities for this government.
To put it simply, our critical minerals are crucial to our security, sovereignty and national defence.
It also means that, for Canada and our allies, overreliance on concentrated foreign supply chains creates vulnerability. Canada offers an alternative to that vulnerability for our allies. Instead of reliance on hegemons, investing in Canada offers diverse, low-carbon, rule-of-law-based production.
And Canada will never use our resources as coercive tools. Instead, we see them as tools to build a stronger G7; a stronger NATO; and a more secure world for all our allies.
That's why, during our 2025 G7 Presidency, we launched the Critical Minerals Production Alliance: to co-ordinate investment among trusted partners and make sure the minerals we need for security are secure themselves. And we are pleased to see that France, as 2026 G7 President, is advancing the work started under the Production Alliance and ensuring that critical minerals remain on the agenda.
We are focused on reducing exposure to concentrated supply chains and on ensuring that the materials underpinning modern economies remain secure, sustainable and accessible.
Sustainability: Competitiveness in a Net-Zero Economy
Finally, Canada's mining leadership is also climate leadership.
We are the world's second-largest uranium producer - providing the mineral that makes clean, baseload, nuclear power possible. We are a top-five producer of key battery minerals, including nickel and cobalt, that underpin the transition to zero-emissions transportation, in line with Canada's new Automotive Strategy.
We are proud that Canadian minerals are produced under strong environmental and labour standards in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, who know and care for the land with traditional knowledge and expertise.
Using Canadian minerals, rather than those produced elsewhere, reduces global emissions by displacing higher-emitting alternatives employed elsewhere.
This is not only Canada protecting our environment - it is our strategy to implement a long-term competitiveness strategy in a world where capital markets will increasingly price in sustainability risk.
Production Alliance Announcement - Mobilizing Capital at Scale
Now, I want to move to the moment we have all been waiting for: the second round of deals under the G7 Critical Mineral Production Alliance.
Last year, Prime Minister Carney launched the Critical Minerals Production Alliance as one of our flagship initiatives under Canada's G7 Presidency. After years of talking about banding together with allies to do something like this, the Alliance was designed to push shared ambition into co-ordinated action. With 26 deals announced last fall at the G7 Energy and Environment Ministerial, I would say this has been a success.
Today, we are scaling that success with thirty new partnerships across ten allied countries, the EU and the UN. These deals unlock $12.1 billion in capital investments from coast to coast to coast. Altogether, this means the Critical Minerals Production Alliance has catalyzed $18.5 billion in Canadian mining projects - no small feat in six months.
These deals represent aligned equity participation, offtake agreements and co-ordinated policy measures that accelerate projects and de-risk cross-border investment.
In capital markets terms, this reduces execution risk, enhances supply chain certainty and improves long-term project returns. It's how we move from delay in the past to delivery today and tomorrow. In geopolitical terms, it strengthens diversified allied supply chains and reduces exposure to concentrated sources of strategic minerals.
These partners have chosen to move forward with Canada, because Canada offers predictability, integrity and scale.
This is momentum. This is proof of concept. And it's capital mobilized at scale.
Confidence in Canada
I want to be clear to my fellow Canadians and all our international friends: Canada intends to be the best place in the world to invest in mining, processing and partnership.
We combine extraordinary natural resources with world-class institutions, capital markets and talent, and we are going to put that to work for Canadian families, businesses and our friends and allies around the world.
To investors here this morning, the message is clear: If you want scale, stability and long-term strategic advantage in one jurisdiction, invest in Canada. Not just because we have the geology, but because we have the resolve to make the most of it - and to bring prosperity, security and sustainability to Canadians and our allies.
Now, I invite you all to join us for a signing ceremony of today's deals - an exciting moment for Canada and all our partners.
Thank you. Merci.
