During National Bank's annual meeting in Montreal, CEO Laurent Ferreira told shareholders that Quebec should increase collaboration with Ontario and produce its own liquefied natural gas.Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press
National Bank of Canada NA-T chief executive officer Laurent Ferreira says Quebec must act quickly to tap its energy and natural resources or risk being left behind as other provinces invest heavily in major infrastructure.
During the bank’s annual meeting in Montreal on Friday, Mr. Ferreira told shareholders that the province should increase collaboration with Ontario and produce its own natural gas to drive Ottawa’s efforts to rebuild economic sovereignty.
British Columbia is accelerating mining and liquefied natural gas projects, Manitoba is advancing its development of the Port of Churchill, and Ontario is progressing on critical minerals projects in Northern Ontario and building its nuclear sector, he said.
As trade tensions and geopolitical uncertainty continue to weigh on the economy and business investment, Mr. Ferreira said Quebec should join in these efforts to drive the federal government’s plans to make Canada an energy superpower.
“I travel around the country, and it feels like most provinces are accelerating discussions and decisions around rebuilding our economic sovereignty, and it seems a little slower in Quebec,” Mr. Ferreira said in an interview.
“We’re going to need energy, and that’s an area where we haven’t built enough infrastructure.”
Within Quebec, he said the province should depend on its own natural gas resources or other Canadian natural gas, rather than continuing to rely on imports. More than half of the natural gas consumed in Quebec and Ontario comes from the United States, Mr. Ferreira said.
Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson has been promoting the country’s LNG to markets in Europe and Asia. Canada’s first and only export terminal, LNG Canada, launched operations in Kitimat, B.C., in June. Other projects in the province are under construction while others are being proposed.
Quebec and Atlantic Canada could supply Europe’s growing demand for LNG while building Canada’s own energy security, according to Mr. Ferreira.
In the past, these types of projects in the province have faced widespread opposition, including from Indigenous communities. He said it will take “political courage” to bring affected groups together and move projects forward.
“There are socioeconomic cases where a lot of the things that we should have built in the past, including LNG Quebec, would be beneficial for the province now,” Mr. Ferreira said. “Set a goal, industrial policies, economic ambitions, and then work with all stakeholders and get it done.”
He proposed Ontario and Quebec join forces to build an integrated northeastern energy grid to combine their resources in hydroelectric and nuclear power. Creating this “electricity giant” would expand energy capacity.
The idea came from his conversations with business leaders and clients.
“Unifying our strengths would allow us to take the best economic decisions together,” he said. “It’s easier to build transmission lines between Quebec and New York versus Quebec and Ontario. Given what’s going on in the world, unifying our strength, we would probably find a lot of great economic outcomes.”
Canada’s banks have been investing in technology and artificial intelligence to cut costs and boost productivity. In October, National Bank expanded the role of Dominic Paradis, executive vice-president and general counsel, to include enterprise technology and resilience, overseeing the chief technology officer and the team.
In recent weeks, Canadian bank executives and regulators have met to discuss cybersecurity risks posed by Anthropic’s new AI model Mythos, a powerful tool that has raised concerns it could be used to help threat actors exploit software vulnerabilities.
Mr. Ferreira said banks and companies across industries will have to expand their security and patching capabilities before the model becomes widely available.
“It’s very serious, and we are involved with market participants and all the other financial institutions in the discussion,” he said. “It’s still very early days, and we’re going to be working on making sure that we’re prepared for that.”