Good morning.

It is a pleasure to be at the Canada Science and Technology Museum – a temple to the ingenuity and drive that has built our great country.

Canada has always been a nation of risk takers and builders.

Our country was forged by Indigenous Peoples and voyageurs who mapped the continent and built vast trading networks from coast to coast to coast before the Americans had even left St. Louis.

By the early 1870s, a young Canada was a vast land of provinces bound together mainly in name, a “mere geographical expression,” in Sir John A. Macdonald’s memorable phrase.

Facing an economic depression and threats to our sovereignty from our southern neighbour – Canadians chose to build.

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) became the connective tissue of a new country – the iron spine from East to West, expanding Canada and bringing B.C. into Confederation. 

Our resources were unlocked, our trade increased, our industries grew, and a stronger, more united, more prosperous Canada emerged.

The CPR became one of the most profitable enterprises in the British Empire, and its founders – Lord Mount Stephen and Lord Strathcona – numbered amongst its wealthiest people.

Today, Canada faces new challenges from a world that is changing, not gradually, but suddenly.

Technological change is accelerating.

The foundations of the international order – the order which Canada helped build and from which we have long benefitted – are crumbling.

Many of our former strengths – built on our close ties with the U.S. – have become our weaknesses.

The U.S. has changed – that’s their right.

We are responding – that’s our imperative.

We are responding with speed and ambition. Focusing on what we can control: building our strength at home and diversifying our partnerships abroad.

Abroad, we have secured more than 20 economic and security partnerships across five continents in less than a year.

We’re re-engaging with global giants like India, China, and Brazil, and deepening our partnerships with our closest allies, including the European Union, the Nordic countries, and Australia.

As a result, we’re attracting the strongest new investment in the G7, and we’re on track to double our non-U.S. exports within a decade. That’s $300 billion in new orders for Canadian resources, goods, and expertise.

At home, we are catalysing a series of nation-building projects in energy, trade, critical minerals, transport, data, and beyond.

We have announced 21 nation-building initiatives that will connect, diversify, and propel our economy, through over $125 billion in new investment.

We are realising Canada’s full potential in clean and conventional energy to power Canadian homes, build Canadian businesses, and reinforce Canadian sovereignty.

We are building a strong economy where everyone has a chance to get ahead. Where we can take care of the vulnerable. Where we pull together to make life more affordable today and better tomorrow.

These are still early days, but we are already delivering results.

Last year, construction began on the new Darlington nuclear power plant in Ontario.

Earlier this month, we kicked off the Contrecœur Terminal expansion project at the Port of Montréal. A project that has been debated for more than four decades is finally under construction.

And we have just approved the Sunrise Expansion Program. By increasing the capacity of British Columbia’s main natural gas transmission system, the $4 billion project will help meet the province’s growing energy demand.

This summer, we will launch the Mackenzie Valley Highway project in the Northwest Territories, a project I’ve been hearing about since I was a child.

We have signed 56 agreements on critical minerals with more than 10 countries.

These agreements will help unlock $18.5 billion for critical minerals projects in Canada.

And we’re just getting started.

We’re building projects across our vast country, from LNG facilities in British Columbia to mines in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, to a new high-speed rail line connecting Toronto to Québec City, as well as Canada’s first major offshore wind project, off the coast of Nova Scotia.

Tomorrow, the Minister of Finance will release our first Spring Economic Update.

It will show how Canada’s new government is combining responsible fiscal management with new measures to ensure all Canadians can participate in building a more independent and more resilient Canadian economy.

Building Canada strong means building a Canada where everyone has a stake, where growth is shared, and where prosperity reaches every region, every community, and every family.

Today, I am proud to announce a new pillar of our plan: the Canada Strong Fund – Canada’s first national sovereign wealth fund.

This will be a Government of Canada fund, but more importantly, it will be a people’s fund. It will be your fund.

The new sovereign wealth fund will invest in major, ambitious Canadian projects,including initiatives in the energy, infrastructure, mining, agriculture, and technology sectors, alongside private investors.

And for the first time in Canada’s history, Canadians will not only be helping to bring these projects to fruition – they will also benefit directly from their economic returns.

The Canada Strong Fund will enable us to build strategically, in partnership with Canadians.

Here is how it works.

A sovereign wealth fund is essentially a national savings and investment account – designed to grow wealth for future generations. Many countries that are blessed with natural resources, like Norway, have them. Canada has not. Until now.

The new Canada Strong Fund will give all Canadians a direct stake in building Canada strong.

To be clear, just like the CPR 150 years ago, Canada’s major projects will mostly be built by private companies.

As in the 1870s, the federal government will support these projects through loans, grants, and other incentives.

We do this because these projects have wider benefits to our economy – benefits that exceed private returns. Expanding the Port of Montréal at Contrecœur, for example, will unlock new markets for thousands of Canadian businesses and create jobs for hundreds of thousands of Canadian workers.

Until now, while those wider benefits flowed to the country, the financial returns of the projects flowed only to those who built and ran them.

That changes today.

When the CPR was built, the government granted private monopolies.

Today, to create wealth for Canadians today and our kids tomorrow, the Canada Strong Fund will invest alongside the private sector in nation-building projects, on a fully commercial basis.

We will begin with an initial endowment of $25 billion. Over time, the fund will grow through asset recycling and reinvestment, creating even greater opportunities for future generations.

We will also do something else that is new and important.

For those who want to participate in an even more direct way, we will make it easy for individual Canadians to invest in the Fund and therefore own a small piece of nation-building projects and share in their returns.

The Fund will be professionally managed and operate as an arms-length, independent Crown corporation.

We will consult over the coming months on specific aspects of the Fund. One thing is sure – it will be accessible to everyone. Not just the few.

Because the Canada Strong Fund is about solidarity among Canadians. No matter where they live. Whether a project is in Alberta, Québec, or in the North – all Canadians will have a stake.

This is about ensuring that you – and your children, and your children’s children – benefit from the prosperity we create today.

In many ways, we are walking the same path as our predecessors.

The same conviction that ambition and drive can change the course of a nation.

The same catalytic role for government to make nation-building projects happen.

The same reliance on private enterprise to build and run these businesses.

At the same time, we have also learned from our past.

The CPR transformed Canada, but the way it was built also left deep scars. Indigenous Peoples were displaced from their lands. Thousands of workers toiled in appalling conditions.

The wealth that was created accrued to the few, not the many.

Three things are different this time.

This time, we are building with Indigenous Peoples as full partners – ensuring meaningful Indigenous ownership and major economic benefits.

This time, we are building in solidarity with Canadian workers – creating hundreds of thousands of high-paying union jobs.

And, this time, for the first time in our history, every Canadian will hold a direct stake in what is built.

Because we know that nation building is not just about what we build, but also about how we build.

We are building together. With all Canadians. For all Canadians.

We are building a stronger, more independent, and more resilient economy for everyone.

A future that is not just strong, but promising as well.

A Canada that is not only prosperous, but fair.

A Canada that is not just for some, most of the time, but for all, all the time.

Jean Lesage, the father of modern Québec, said: “Our historical and geographical situation has forced us to become what we are: we now want to be what we can become.”

It’s this same philosophy that inspires us today to create the Canada Strong Fund.

Thanks to this fund, every Canadian will share in the benefits of these major projects.

These are our natural resources, our workforce, and our wealth.

This is the best way to be masters in our own home.

We are building Canada strong, for everyone.

A Canada where everyone benefits.

Where everyone can participate.

It’s our country, it’s your future.

We are building by Canadians, for all Canadians.

We are building Canada strong for all.

Thank you.