Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Seamus O’Regan Jr., and Saskatchewan’s Minister of Energy and Resources, the Honourable Bronwyn Eyre, today released the following joint statement on the 2021 Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference:
We had the pleasure to meet virtually today with our provincial and territorial counterparts, as part of ongoing sessions ahead of the 2021 Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference, which is currently planned for Saskatoon in September.
As governments across Canada continue to address the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and focus on economic recovery, we are working together to support our natural resource sectors.
These efforts have resulted in a number of new programs with three clear aims: to support jobs in the natural resource industries, advance innovative energy development and strengthen Canada’s competitiveness, including through reducing emissions and combating climate change.
In particular, we noted progress today on: investments to remediate inactive and orphan wells; funding the Targeted Geoscience Initiative and the Geo-mapping for the Energy and Minerals Program; and the new Emissions Reduction Fund, as well as direct support for workers in the oil and gas sector, including in Indigenous communities.
We also discussed the ongoing implementation and progress to date of key priorities that were identified at our last Energy and Mines Ministers’ Conference meeting. These include our work on small modular reactors, a Hydrogen Strategy and initiatives under the Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan. For this last initiative, a federal-provincial-territorial task team was established and is currently developing a Canadian critical minerals inventory to build an integrated, all-Canadian critical minerals and battery value chain.
We also discussed the long, successful tradition of collaboration between the United States and Canada, including in the areas of energy, mining and natural resources. The future of these sectors depends on a coordinated and successful approach to working with the new U.S. administration and on emphasizing the importance of energy infrastructure, including the more than 70 pipelines that cross our common border.
We look forward to building on our successes with our provincial and territorial counterparts as we work together to create a strong, sustainable energy future for Canada.