How Canada can seize a once-in-a-generation opportunity and win the coming natural resource arms race The transition to a clean and digital economy has ignited a global race for critical minerals — the essential inputs for batteries, electric vehicles (EVs), wind turbines, solar panels, advanced electronics and defence technologies. These minerals (such as lithium, cobalt and nickel) are now as...
The completion of the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline in May 2024 has coincided with the beginning of a new era in global trade. Fueled by escalating US trade tensions and tariff policies that underscore Canada’s heavy dependence on a single market for its oil exports, TMX’s significance as a strategic gateway to the Asia-Pacific region is increasing, and China...
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has forever changed global commodities markets. The economic sanctions subsequently imposed on Russia exposed multiple risks related to (over)reliance on a single or dominant suppliers of critical materials (Sukhankin 2024a).
In the rush to diversify Canada’s trade routes and export destinations, provincial, territorial, and federal politicians of all partisan stripes have heralded new corridors and ports. With major ports already established on the Pacific side, in Vancouver and Prince Rupert; and the Atlantic side, in Montreal, Halifax, and Saint John; attention has turned to the Arctic.
The British government is looking to back investments in Canadian projects—including nuclear energy—through its export credit agency, which helps firms secure financing so long as 20 per cent of their procurement comes from the United Kingdom. U.K. Export Finance (UKEF) has been around for more than a century, but set up shop in Canada just last fall. Ozgur Kutay, a...
In the wake of an unpredictable relationship with the Trump Administration in the US, Canadians are quite supportive of a new government funded oil pipeline from Alberta to Eastern Canada. Three of four Canadians favour this project including almost six in ten Quebecers. A majority of Canadians support or somewhat support this potential energy project in every region and demographic...
Over the last five years, competition over critical minerals has become a focal point of great-power rivalry — particularly between the United States and China. These strategic materials, including rare earth elements, are vital for producing the advanced technologies underpinning the green economy, defence industries, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. Given that the world is rapidly transitioning to cleaner energy...
B.C. First Nations claim betrayal, bad-faith bargaining and a propane monopoly that lets a foreign company cap Canada's export potential
As mining and investment leaders gather in Toronto this week for the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference, the Northwest Territories (NWT) is once again front and centre in the conversation about Canada’s critical minerals future. With global demand soaring and geopolitical tensions heightening the need for secure supply chains, the NWT is uniquely positioned to help...
Donald Trump is an all-purpose distraction, a threat on so many fronts, that concern about climate has been temporarily pushed aside. But people still care. So much for climate change. It is no longer an issue, apparently; hardly an afterthought, in the current political moment. Donald Trump’s threats to our economy have spurred, among other things, a bizarre panic to...
Ken S. Coates explains how salmon farming could benefit Canada by providing economic stability to coastal communities, fostering greater co-operation with First Nations, driving technological innovation, and protecting wild salmon
Conversations about trade wars with Canada’s historically most trusted ally have forced Canadians to take a long, hard look at the domestic capacity of their economy, from agriculture, to manufacturing, to oil and gas. With respect to the latter, new debates have dredged up old projects as Canadians and their leaders consider how to transport energy across the country. New...
If we want to be economic masters in our own house, then “buying Canadian” to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign to attack our sovereignty through a tariff war, while admirably patriotic, isn’t enough.
Completion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) project in May 2024 marked a transformative moment for Canada’s crude oil industry, increasing the amount of oil that can make it to tidewater, and unlocking significant new export opportunities. Contrary to many analysts’ expectations, early data indicates that a large amount of this new export capacity is finding its way not...
