National security questions helped inform critical minerals strategy: minister
Global News
As part of the new approach to critical minerals, Canada is hoping to reduce its reliance on international partners that don't share common values, Jonathan Wilkinson said.
National security questions about countries like China and Russia helped “inform” Canada’s new critical minerals strategy, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says.
His comments come after the federal government unveiled the strategy on Friday, which focuses on driving exploration and building sustainable infrastructure.
As part of the new approach to critical minerals, Canada is hoping to reduce its reliance on international partners that don’t share common values, Wilkinson said — particularly after the world watched Russia withhold natural gas supplies from European countries amid the war in Ukraine, prompting massive shortages in the region.
During an interview for The West Block, aired Sunday, host Mercedes Stephenson asked the natural resources minister how much of the critical minerals strategy was informed by Russia’s war in Ukraine — and Canada’s increasingly chilly relationship with Beijing.
“I think the world learned a lot in the aftermath of the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, where Germany found itself very much dependent on Russia for oil and gas,” Wilkinson responded.
“I don’t think anybody wants to be in that position on a go-forward basis with critical minerals.”
Between 80 and 90 per cent of rare earth elements are processed in China, Wilkinson added.
“That’s, just from a national security perspective, not somewhere where we want to go, our American friends want to go, our European friends want to go,” he said.
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