How the Minister of Natural Resources can help Canada transition to a sustainable, low carbon future

After over a year-and-a-half of lockdowns and sacrifice, Canadians are seeing the benefits of their efforts to stop COVID-19. The pandemic is not over, but we can now look beyond COVID to plan for our future. Now, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce is writing “mandate letters” to members of the Cabinet with policy priorities that will support growth of the Canadian economy.

Canada’s natural resource sector can play a significant role in creating economic growth. Moreover, with the right policy commitments from the federal government, the natural resource sector is positioned to provide leadership and innovation to help Canada transition to a sustainable, low carbon future.

The Minister of Natural Resources should:

• Promote that the energy sector can be a key partner in Canada’s net-zero strategy, and that energy security remains fundamental to climate action.
  
• Deliver a critical minerals strategy that increases investments in the extraction of critical minerals to create North American supply chains that support clean technologies and advanced manufacturing. Explore with the Minister of National Defence how procurement of defence products can create incentives for the production of North American-sourced critical minerals.
  
• Work with industry partners to facilitate Canada’s ability to provide key energy, technology, and mineral inputs to world markets, which can reduce global emissions.
  
• Develop a systems approach to energy that improves Canada’s export infrastructure (e.g., rails, ports), supports energy intensive industries, and modernizes Canadian power grids.
  
• Partner with industry to provide regulatory clarity and certainty to capital markets to bolster investor confidence in Canada’s natural resource sector.
  
• Support the removal of interprovincial trade barriers for energy and goods.

To see all 21 of our mandate letters to ministers, click here.