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Good afternoon everyone.

I want to thank Ian McKay from Invest in Canada for hosting this event and of course, thank you all for joining us.

Before we get into things, I want to take a moment to talk about the Coronavirus. I know people are concerned.

I want to assure everyone that our health officials and professionals are working tirelessly to keep Canada and Canadians safe. 

Our government is taking a multi-departmental approach through our Incident Response Group, which has been meeting regularly. 

We are basing our responses on the best science and evidence available and we continue to monitor global developments both in terms of health and on the economy.

Toronto learned a lot in coping with the SARS outbreak back in 2003 and we’re applying many of those hard-earned lessons. We will continue to do everything necessary to keep Canadians safe and ensure up-to-date information so you can keep your families safe.

I’ve been very much looking forward to this event because it highlights the kind of future Canadians are building right across the country.

A future where innovation creates good jobs for people. Where we grow the economy while protecting our environment. A future where Canada is the best place in the world to invest. 

Mining has long been a fundamental building block of our economy. Mineral production happens in every Canadian province and territory.

Workers have often told me – this is the kind of job I can raise a family on.

The kinds of opportunities that keep our young people in our town. The kinds of projects that lift up entire communities, including many Indigenous communities.

And that’s why our government wants to keep our mining sector strong and growing.

We want to attract new investments to keep good jobs here, create new opportunities for workers and business owners alike, and maintain Canada’s stellar reputation in this field.

But we are meeting at an important point in time. The global economy is rapidly changing.

Earlier this year, BlackRock’s Larry Fink announced sweeping changes to the fund’s investment strategy, recognizing climate change as a defining factor in any company’s future.

Larry acknowledged that climate change is fundamentally reshaping finance, just as it is causing companies, sectors, and entire countries to reassess their core assumptions about what tomorrow holds.

However, even as this reality takes hold, around the world and right here in Canada, the debate between environment and economy is becoming increasingly contentious and polarized.

I think we can all agree that it’s unhelpful for polarized views to define the battleground of a debate. To adapt to major disruptions like climate change and seize new opportunities in emerging markets like clean tech, what we need to do is build common ground instead.

And that’s what I came to talk to you about today, but first I want to talk about mining because yours is an industry that already understands that good climate policy is good business.

Investors are increasingly looking to fund projects in jurisdictions where governments have put a solid framework in place to reconcile resource development and climate change.

Since the beginning of our mandate, our government has taken significant and ambitious steps to address and adapt to the climate emergency.

We have put a price on pollution. We will be banning harmful single-use plastics. We are investing in clean technologies, skills training, and innovation.

And we have strengthened the environmental assessment process for major infrastructure projects so that they take into account the perspectives of Indigenous communities from the start and respect their rights.

Now, some would have you believe that having a serious plan to fight climate change is bad for business.

But let’s look at the numbers.

Just last week, Statistics Canada reported that foreign direct investment was up 18% compared to the 2018 total.

The data shows that more investors are looking to Canada as a great place to invest and we’re already seeing groundbreaking initiatives take shape in our communities.

Global aluminum industry leaders Alcoa and Rio Tinto chose Saguenay, Quebec to launch a new revolutionary smelting process for aluminum with zero greenhouse gas emissions. It actually produces oxygen.

That’s the kind of investment we want to attract.

Most of you already know that a thriving mining industry and a thriving natural resource sector don’t have to be impediments to fighting climate change. They cannot only be part of that fight, but essential partners.

In a letter announcing Teck’s decision to withdraw the Frontier oil sands project, CEO Don Lindsay recognized “global capital markets are changing rapidly and investors and customers are increasingly looking for jurisdictions to have a framework in place that reconciles resource development and climate change, in order to produce the cleanest possible products.”

The mining industry cannot only drive the clean transition, but profit from it.

To produce high-density batteries and wind turbines, you need copper, nickel, and cobalt.

To build a solar panel, you need 19 metals and minerals and Canada is home to 14 of them.

When people talk about green jobs or the green transition, they don’t always think of the mining sector, but this industry has an essential role to play.

Many of you know this.

You are already innovating. You are adopting more responsible practices and exploring new opportunities resulting from a greener economy.

But to keep our mining sector strong, you need a partner in government that will help you grow and remain competitive on the global market.

Our government is that partner.

Last year right here at PDAC, we – together with so many of you as crucial partners – launched the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan to raise awareness about the importance of this sector, respond to new challenges facing your industry, and help you seize new opportunities in a changing economy. And now you can applaud yourselves, that was a great initiative and continues to be.

The Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus O’Regan, is here to work with you to advance an action plan, which will be launched later this year.

We are also exploring new opportunities with our international partners.

Last December, Canada and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding on the rare-earth minerals, which are vital to the development of new technologies and things like smart phones and computers.

There’s more work to be done, but our goal is to get to a place where we can provide our rare earth minerals to the world.

When we talk about exporting rare earth minerals, it’s not just about being a present partner, but a reliable source of those minerals that the world so desperately needs.

And Canada, as you all know, is that reliable partner.

Our government recognizes that moving towards a low-carbon economy is a big adjustment for many industries, including yours.

This transformation won’t happen overnight.

It will take some time, but our government is firmly committed to supporting your industry during this period of change.

As people in this room know, electric vehicles are not just for city streets. They are for cleaner mining operations, which protects the health of workers and the environment.

Canada is now home to its first all-electric goldmine – the Borden Mine in Chapleau, Ontario, which our government was proud to support. And Canada’s own MacLean Engineering of Collingwood, has already delivered electric vehicle solutions to nine mines across Canada.

But let’s be honest, this is only the beginning.  

Our government wants to support this sector in accelerating the use of clean mining trucks here at home.

And we know Canadian companies, like MacLean, like Kovatera of Sudbury, and Prairie Machine of Saskatoon – can be strong competitors in delivering electric mining vehicle equipment to mines around the world.

So today, I am announcing that we propose to extend the existing zero emission vehicle incentive to include off-road vehicles like mining fleets.

In Canada, heavy industry accounts for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. This new incentive will help reduce emissions from transport and help companies save money.

When it comes to fighting climate change and safeguarding the environment, our government is unapologetically ambitious.

We put a price on pollution right across the country. We will meet and exceed our 2030 Paris targets. And this year, we will begin to work on a plan to achieve net-zero by 2050.

Now, reaching net-zero will take some time. To get this right, we have a lot of work to do with Canadians and with industry leaders.

For the good of our economy, for the good of our country – we need to do this well.

So, we need your input.

Transforming our economy for the future is not something one government can or should do alone. We need governments of all orders, and much more than that, we need businesses and industry.

This is the common ground I’m talking about.

Think about the free trade debate here in Canada in the 1980s.

Many of you in the room will remember it well: the 1988 election on free trade with the U.S. was fiercely polarized and polarizing. It broke along political lines, divided families, communities, and the entire country.

And yet, barely five years and one change in government later, we expanded Canada-U.S. free trade into NAFTA with very little fuss.

And now of course, we now have a strong national consensus across the country and across party lines that trade is good for the economy and good for Canada, which is why we are still the first and only G7 country with a free trade agreement with every other G7 country. We went from a super divided country angsting over a key issue that went to the core of our future, our economy, our identity as Canadians. That 1988 election was one of the first elections I was really, well it wasn’t the first election I was aware of for personal reasons, but I was engaged in it as a young Canadian, focused on this free trade debate that was wrenching us apart.

And then in the early-mid ‘90s, suddenly we were part of NAFTA and there was no debate over it anymore.

We knew that trade was essential and free trade was even better.

How did we get there? How did we go from an incredibly polarizing debate to us realizing, oh, it’s not about whether we do it, it’s how we do it right.

Well that’s exactly the same situation we’re in right now. Where the debate over climate change – over the economy versus environment – is just as polarized, just as divisive. And the voices on the margins of that debate are incredibly loud.

But that challenge we face now, to reach that consensus that Canadians know needs to be there. That of course we need to protect the environment at the same time as we create good jobs. Of course we can only create a better, stronger economy for everyone if we are fighting climate change at the same time.

We know that. Canadians know that.

We just haven’t reached that point of consensus where we argue about the best way to do it.

There are still pockets of this country and the political debate arguing about whether or not to protect the environment. But as we saw from the free trade debate, that can flip fairly quickly. It won’t be easy, but we all know, you all know, that’s where we need to go.  

In the coming year, we want to hear from you on how Canada should innovate and transform our economy to keep good jobs here and create new ones.

We want to work with you to grow Canada’s prosperity by taking carbon pollution out of our environment and out of our economy.

This is a big project, and not one that any government can do on its own. We all need to roll up our sleeves and pitch in.

Governments. Businesses. Civil society. Indigenous communities. And all Canadians.

The only way we create a better future is if we do it together. .

There is no doubt that the global economy and global markets for resources are changing.

And for a country like Canada, where the national economy was built on the natural resources sector, there’s big transformation ahead, to be sure.

But let’s remember, this is Canada.

We are incredibly rich in natural resources the world needs, and we always will be. Natural resources will always be a big part of our economy, no matter how much we invest in AI or grow our cities. We just need to transform our approach to meet a challenging future.

Now for the people who have worked in these industries, in some cases for generations, this can seem really daunting. Our government wants to make sure they have the right support.

Leading the clean energy transition means rethinking how we harness Canada’s resources, not whether or not we harness them at all.

It means seeing and meeting the challenges and opportunities before us head-on. It means being ready to innovate and collaborate.

Canada is uniquely positioned to be the world’s cleanest supplier of metals and minerals – and you all have an integral role to play in making this a reality.

If industries like yours continue to innovate, if governments work together on a serious plan to protect the environment, if we continue to invest in training and support workers through this economic transformation – I know that together, we will absolutely build this better future.