July 15, 2024 Surrey, British Columbia Natural Resources Canada
Today, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, with the Honourable Josie Osborne, B.C.'s Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation and the Honourable Rob Fleming, B.C.'s Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, announced a joint investment of $195 million to upgrade key highway infrastructure in B.C.'s northwest needed to support critical minerals development in the region, improve community access and safety, and create good mining jobs across the province.
Supported by collaboration between governments and funded through the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund, a flagship program under the Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy, this project has been conditionally approved to support the development and operation of several copper, molybdenum, zinc, nickel and cobalt projects in B.C.'s Golden Triangle region. The federal contribution totals up to $75 million with the remaining $120 million being funded by B.C.'s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.
The Northwest BC Highway Corridor Improvements Project is a key action of B.C.'s Critical Minerals Strategy, a top priority for the Tahltan Central Government and the mining industry in B.C. and a shared priority of the federal government. It will provide a series of improvements for Highways 37, 37A and 51, which include widening shoulders, creating pullouts for slow-moving vehicles, adding chain up/chain off areas and increasing Wi-Fi access along 800 kilometres of roadway. These upgrades are crucial to allow increased industrial traffic linked to mining activity and will generate well-defined, long-term benefits for First Nations and local communities in the region, including enhanced safety, reliability and accessibility of essential services.
Improvements to these highways are integral to advancing critical minerals development in B.C.'s northwest, in consultation with First Nations. The area served by these infrastructure improvements has been called the "Golden Triangle" for its mineral potential, holding approximately 75 percent of Canada's known copper reserves. Expanded and improved highways have the potential to create up to an estimated 3,000 jobs, $20 billion in capital investments and over $450 million in annual mineral taxes, as well as substantial local First Nations revenue-sharing and economic opportunities for First Nations.
In addition to the regional benefits, it is estimated that each direct job at a new mine in B.C. creates at least two jobs in mining supply and service companies located throughout the province. A recent report by the Mining Association of B.C. found that Metro Vancouver alone has 1,125 companies supplying goods and services to the mining sector and received economic benefits of $1.4 billion in 2022. This includes Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Ltd. in Surrey, B.C., which hosted today's announcement and has provided equipment in the northwest region of the province for Newmont Corporation's Brucejack Mine.
Critical minerals are essential components in products used for clean energy like electric vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines, electrical transmission lines and batteries. B.C.'s mining sector provides many of the building blocks of clean technologies that the province and the world need to fight climate change and build a clean economy. Across the country, clean energy solutions are providing enormous economic opportunity for Canada.
Today's joint investments in B.C.'s northwest is one outcome of the increased collaboration toward shared priorities at the B.C. Regional Energy and Resource Table. Minister Wilkinson and Minister Osborne, in collaboration with First Nations partners, also today released the Regional Energy and Resource Table - One-Year Progress Report. The report highlights key progress made since the partners developed the first collaboration framework of its kind in the country last June.
The report highlights tangible progress in all six areas of opportunity, as well as ongoing work on many of the 43 action items, including:
· identifying options to enable First Nations equity participation in the North Coast Transmission Line Project, in partnership with BC Hydro and the Canada Infrastructure Bank.
· working with partners and key stakeholders to advance a call for expressions of interest from proponents, with First Nations partners, for projects in priority sectors (e.g., critical minerals, hydrogen, electrification) to pilot regulatory and permitting efficiencies. This is in line with the Ministerial Working Group on Regulatory Efficiency for Clean Growth Projects' recently released Building Canada's Clean Future an action plan to modernize federal assessment and permitting processes.
· enhancing information sharing and collaboration on project priorities in key sectors - projects such as the Northwest BC Highway Corridor Improvement Project announced today.
· continuing to invest in Indigenous capacity to meaningfully participate in this process through renewed agreements with the First Nations Energy and Mining Council (FNEMC) and the First Nations Forestry Council (FNFC) for a combined total of $550,000 this fiscal year.
