Premier says Ontario has what the United States needs

"It’s a real pleasure to be here today alongside Minister Pirie, who you just heard from, and also Minister Greg Rickford, Minister Stephen Crawford, and Will Bouma, the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations economic reconciliation.
I also want to acknowledge and welcome Priya from the Ontario Mining Association as well as representatives from some of our province’s great mining companies. And a big thank you to Alexis Kim and the incredible team at the Royal Ontario Museum for hosting us today.
The ROM has such a great critical minerals exhibit, and folks, this is just one part of it behind there. It’s rows and rows of critical minerals. It’s really impressive. If you ever have a chance to bring your family down or come by yourself, it’s shocking what you see here. Highlighting Ontario’s rich mining history, it puts our abundant supply of critical minerals on full display.
Friends, we’re just one week away—seven days—from a new administration in the White House and the real threat of a 25% tariff on Canadian goods entering the United States. This is not something we’re taking lightly.
Last week, I met with all premiers, and on Wednesday, I’ll be in Ottawa to meet with the Prime Minister and all the premiers to continue pressing the federal government to do everything humanly possible to avoid US tariffs.
The political instability in Ottawa is no excuse. The federal government needs to present a more credible plan—to invest more in Canada’s military, exceed our 2% NATO commitment, and turn words into action with highly visible activities every day that show Canada is serious about strengthening our border security.
As we prepare for the incoming administration, Ontario is doing our part. Over the past several months, I’ve been meeting with US senators, congressmen and congresswomen, governors, and business leaders to promote Ontario’s close economic partnership with the United States and underscore the devastating impact that tariffs would have on families and workers in both countries.
Just keep in mind, there are over 9 million Americans who wake up every morning to produce products for Ontario alone, including the million Americans that wake up every morning to produce products for all the other provinces and territories—whose jobs rely on making goods sold to Ontario and Canada.
As I’ve met with and spoken to US lawmakers, I’ve heard significant concerns about how China is ripping off American workers by hijacking global supply chains. I’ve heard loud and clear—America has had enough.
Now US lawmakers are undertaking one of the most ambitious economic and geopolitical shifts in decades as America decouples from China and its global proxies. This won’t be easy. It will require long-term thinking, dedication, and most of all, friends and allies.
Working together, Canada and the US can be the richest, most successful, and safest countries on the entire planet. Working together, we can usher in a new American-Canadian century—a time of unprecedented growth, job creation, security, and prosperity.
We do so by building Fortress Amcan. Fortress Amcan is a renewed alliance between America and Canada—a beacon of stability, security, and long-term economic growth on both sides of the border. A true partnership where Canada and the US align on shared priorities: achieving free, fair, and balanced trade, growing our economies, and protecting our borders and our communities.
Last week at our Darlington Nuclear Facility, I talked about how Fortress Amcan can achieve energy security to power economic growth on both sides of the border. Like energy and electricity, Ontario and Canada’s abundant supply of critical minerals—essential for the advanced military technologies that will define geopolitical and economic security for the next century—are a key strategic support.
As a key example, take our supply of nickel. Canada is by far America’s number one supplier of nickel—46% of the nickel the US uses comes from Canada. Norway is a distant second at 9%. Canada’s nickel is some of the highest quality in the entire world, suitable for the most advanced military technologies. America needs it, and Canada has it.
Like our supply of nickel, Ontario and Canada are home to some of the richest mineral deposits in the entire world, including the Ring of Fire region. At a time when China is winning the race to dominate these resources while restricting the sale and shipment of critical minerals to the US, Canada and Ontario urgently need to get our critical minerals out of the ground, processed, and shipped to the factory floors that are building the technologies of tomorrow.
Here in Ontario, work is already underway to position our province as a global leader in critical minerals. We’re working with First Nation communities, investing in skills training programs for the mining industry, speeding up the process to open a mine in Ontario, investing millions of dollars to support mineral exploration and development, and making progress building the all-season roads to the Ring of Fire.
But we have more work to do. To build Fortress Amcan, I’m proposing bold new measures to help extract, process, and deliver the critical minerals that will meet the demands of our Amcan economies.
Ontario plans to start a new Amcan Critical Mineral Security Alliance to invest in and build out American and Canadian critical mineral supply chains, including significantly expanding Amcan processing capacity as part of this new alliance.
We need to speed up regulatory approval timelines for current and planned critical mineral projects, with priority given to the projects that displace and replace Chinese supply. This includes enshrining a one-project, one-process permitting approach for all resource development in Canada, with guaranteed service standards and timelines.
I’m also urging the federal government to work with Ontario and other willing provinces and territories to designate areas where multiple critical minerals are present or likely to be present—including the Ring of Fire region—as regions of strategic importance to the national security of Canada and the US. These regions should be supported with a special approvals process that significantly reduces timelines to get minerals out of the ground.
I’m also calling on the federal government to ensure that federal foreign investment reviews capture emerging strategic sectors and supply chains like critical minerals and energy, with the stated objective of protecting these sectors for Fortress Amcan.
At the same time, Canada and Ontario should continue to work with the US Department of Defense to prioritize shared Amcan national security objectives as we invest in critical mineral supply chains.
Lastly, I’m urging the federal government, US lawmakers, and industry experts to join us in a new cross-border working group to identify Amcan policy solutions that promote the long-term sustainability of critical mineral development projects, including cracking down on short-selling and foreign investment tactics that undermine the viability of American and Canadian junior mining companies.
US lawmakers are already looking at options, and we should urgently join them in this work.
With these measures, we can power our economic growth, create jobs, and advance our shared security priorities.
Friends, Fortress Amcan is an ambitious plan. It won’t be easy, but it’s necessary. Many of these initiatives will require the federal government to step up to ensure that energy, trade, and security policies serve the best interests of Canadians and Americans alike.
Together, let’s stop wasting time talking about a merger that is never going to happen and instead focus our efforts on restoring the pride of “Made in Canada.” "
Tags: Northern Ontario / Government / Metals / All Articles