Today, we are here to talk about a collaborative project with Nokia with the goal of further advancing 5G technology research and development. 5G wireless networks play a critical role in many aspects of our lives, such as working, shopping online and staying in touch with our loved ones. Efficient networks are also important for making progress in areas such as clean technology, medicine and agriculture. The green future and the future of the knowledge economy depend on digital technology and the connectivity that Nokia and others are building.

This is an exciting announcement that will help us advance 5G technology. This project is about innovative tech research and development happening right here in Canada and creating new opportunities, including for our talented young people but more specifically, this is a project that would build a world class R&D hub that will transform the wireless technologies we rely on every day. This project will help build a stronger future for Canadians, and that's why our government is here today to help it move forward.

Our government is building a strong, competitive economy for the future and we continue to put Canadians at the centre of everything we do to create good jobs.

By investing in this new technology, we're helping to deliver the technologies Canadians expect in a world of fast paced change. We're also creating opportunities across the tech sector in Canada. Not only will it make us more connected, but this project is expected to create more than 340 good jobs in this high paying and fast-growing sector. It will also increase co-op and internship opportunities for post-secondary students, as Pekka was saying earlier, for about every fourth workstation here, there is an intern here learning and growing and that commitment to developing the workforce of tomorrow and ensuring diversity in that workforce as well, including bringing in almost 50% women in their internships is really, really important, not just for the fairer, more equitable society we're building, but for the excellence of the products and the research that is done.

By advancing Canada's 5G capabilities, this will help add real value to our economy because 5G has the potential to add $40 billion to our economy every year by 2026.

This fits in to a series of announcements we've been making over the past year. Started in the spring, François-Philippe and I and Doug was there as well at Stellantis and some other auto sectors, talking about electric vehicles, talking about the battery supply chain.

We were just last week at Rio Tinto in Sorel, Quebec, talking about the important investments in a green supply chain around the critical minerals that are needed for the auto industry.

I was just on Friday or Thursday in Hamilton meeting with Dofasco, where investments of the province and the federal government are making in moving off of coal is not just going to clean our environment, clean our air, but make sure that Canada and the green steel produced in Canada is continuing to be globally competitive and that Canada indeed will lead the world in the production of cleaner, more high quality processes that the auto industry here, but industries around the world need to a much larger degree.

At the end of the summer, we welcomed Olaf Scholz to Newfoundland to talk about the hydrogen economy that's being built in Canada as Canada develops the industry to be the provider of energy to a net zero world in the coming decades. Canada is remarkably well positioned for that in a really key way. But of course, none of those advanced technologies, none of that happens without the kind of connectivity that we're here talking about today and it's not just the high-tech sectors, it's not just hydrogen production and just in time EV manufacturing everything that needs that instant connectivity.

On Friday, I was on a farm just outside of Kitchener and the level of technology that goes into it from monitors on every dairy cow to make sure that their heartbeat, their chewing rate, their location is covered to see what stage they're at, to be able to measure exactly how much fertilizer is going where on the field using geolocation, the need to connect everything for maximum efficiency, for maximum productivity and for maximum beneficial impact, minimizing waste, minimizing excess energy is going to be the key to moving forward.

So, Canada is a country with extraordinary natural resources and our advances on critical minerals and energy are things that the world is going to need right now because we're doing it environmentally, because we're doing it sustainably, because we're doing it with a high quality of labour standards and quality of life for workers and that's a key differentiator from places around the world but on top of that, Canada's advances in communications and digital technology advances and world leadership on A.I., moving forward on quantum technologies, these are all the things and the connectivity that you get from 5G and eventually 6G, it's happening right here in Canada.

Nokia is here today because the work that Canadians have been doing over decades but particularly over the past number of years, is positioning us to be a world leader in all the things that the globe is going to need and value in the coming years. That's why this announcement matters, that's why Canadians are coming together with an incredibly optimistic view of the future, despite the very real challenges of the world that positions Canada in an extraordinarily propitious way for the coming years.

Today is another example of the work being done to stimulate investment across the economy and ensure that all Canadians benefit from it.

Companies like Nokia keep investing in Canada because they know we have the talent and forward-looking vision that they're looking for. We're excited to see all the potential they’ll bring forward with this project and we'll keep working to create and attract well-paying middle-class jobs across the country while we build an economy that works for all Canadians. Thanks very much everyone.