Teck Resources CEO Jonathan Price at the Highland Valley Copper Mine, near Logan Lake, B.C., in 2025.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is moving in the right direction to strengthen Canada’s critical minerals sector, but more investment is needed in crucial mining infrastructure, Teck Resources Ltd. TECK-B-T chief executive Jonathan Price said Tuesday at the Canada Investment Summit.
In a panel discussion at the summit alongside Cameco Corp. CEO Tim Gitzel and Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. CEO Ammar Al-Joundi, Mr. Price called for more money to be put into electricity grids and transportation corridors, a move that will benefit many mining companies.
Mr. Price pointed to the Ring of Fire in Northern Ontario and the Golden Triangle in British Columbia as remote areas of the country where such infrastructure investment is particularly needed.
Live updates from the Canada Investment Summit
“To unlock those deposits, we need access either by road or rail, we need power solutions, we need a route to port, and we need port capacity to get those products to market,” he said.
“When that infrastructure comes, and the Major Projects Office is working on this right now, particularly in B.C., that will allow multiple proponents to develop multiple mines.”
Several infrastructure projects that would benefit the mining sector have already been referred to the MPO, which was created last year by Mr. Carney to both reduce red tape and potentially facilitate funding.
Those projects include the North Coast Transmission Line in northwestern British Columbia, the Taltson Hydro Expansion in the Great Slave Lake region of the Northwest Territories, and the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor in the NWT, a 400-kilometre all-season road through the Slave Geological Province to the Nunavut border.
The deals and dealmakers to watch at the Canada Investment Summit
Carney sees chance to tap into Asian, European markets at investment summit
The goal of the Canada Investment Summit in Toronto is to help attract hundreds of billions of dollars of investment into Canada to help cushion the blow of the continuing trade war with the United States. The event, which kicked off Monday evening and continued into Tuesday, is being led by Mr. Carney and co-hosted by big Canadian pension funds.
In a speech on Tuesday morning at the summit, Mr. Carney said that building resource projects faster by removing federal red tape is one of the ways to make Canada the most attractive country in the G7 to invest.
“For projects and supply chains, our standard will be simple: One project. One review. One year,” he said.
“Canada will remain a country of high standards. But high standards do not require slow decisions. Speed, certainty and predictability are themselves competitive advantages.”
Mr. Price said that Teck’s recent experience in permitting an expansion of its Highland Valley Copper mine in B.C. points to improved lead times to get major projects off the ground.
“We’re seeing very good examples of a simplification and acceleration of the permitting processes here in Canada,” he said.
“We are seeing real change over the last 18 months.”
Agnico Eagle’s CEO, in an interview after the panel discussion concluded, said Mr. Carney’s goal to speed up its reviews of major projects is doable.
“There really is no reason, if things are done right, that it should take more than a year,” Mr. Al-Joundi said.
Some roadblocks that can still slow the permitting process down include a lack of clarity of what is needed from companies when they deal with Ottawa, or different departments of the government asking for the same information.
“The most efficient solution, and we have talked to them about this, is just tell us upfront very clearly what it is you need,” Mr. Al-Joundi said. “If we are missing something, tell us ASAP, and we don’t want to have to give the same information to various different levels of government.”
While Toronto-based Agnico specializes in mining gold, its subsidiary Avenir Minerals Ltd. holds more than a dozen investments in critical minerals projects, including an equity position in nickel development company Canada Nickel Company Inc.
In July, Ottawa gave Toronto-based Canada Nickel the go-ahead to build a massive new nickel mine in Northern Ontario. The company is currently looking to finalize a US$2.5-billion funding package for the project.
When asked if Avenir could be a buyer of Canada Nickel, Mr. Al-Joundi said that owing in part to the subsidiary’s relatively small valuation of about $400-million, such a deal would be a big ask.
“I think it would be unlikely,” he said.