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By Brian Platt and Jacob Lorinc
Tim Hodgson Photographer: David Kawai/Bloomberg
As Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government prepares to plow forward on major new energy and infrastructure projects, his natural resources minister says he wants Indigenous groups to pursue large ownership stakes in them.
“If we are serious about retooling our economy, then economic reconciliation must be front and center,” said Energy Minister Tim Hodgson in prepared remarks to the Toronto Regional Board of Trade.
“Indigenous equity means revenue that stays in the community and can be passed down to the next generation,” he said. “It means a generational transformation in how major projects get done.”
Carney’s government has promised to move quickly on a wide range of significant projects including mines, electricity transmission links, and new oil and gas export infrastructure. Hodgson, a former Goldman Sachs executive recruited by Carney to run for office, is a key minister tasked with delivering this agenda.
Legislation to speed the approvals of these projects is expected to pass its final vote in Parliament this week. Bill C-5, which Hodgson referred to as “a nation-defining piece of legislation,” creates a new federal office for handling major projects designated as being in the national interest, with the goal of approving construction within two years.
But the bill has already caused backlash among Indigenous groups worried about their rights being trampled in the process.
Carney’s government has tried to assuage those concerns, and Hodgson pointed to his own history on the board of Ontario’s Hydro One utility as evidence that he knows how to consult and work with Indigenous communities.
Hodgson said a recent transmission line project in southwestern Ontario was completed under budget and a year early “because of the strong consultation process and the significant equity ownership achieved by First Nations.”
“Done the right way, First Nations involvement accelerated the project – it did not slow it down,” Hodgson said. “To me, this approach stands as a model for how this country can and should build major infrastructure projects going forward.”
He said a key tool will be the government’s recently created Indigenous loan guarantee program, which sets out C$10 billion ($7.3 billion) in federal funding to help First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities take equity stakes in projects.
Hodgson put emphasis on electricity projects in the speech, and said Ontario’s nuclear industry will be key in generating clean power for resources projects across the country, especially when it comes to small modular reactors.
“This will require efficient, integrated electricity grids,” he said. “Our new government is committed to working quickly with provinces and territories on east-west and north-south transmission inter-ties.”
He also said the country is positioned to lead on critical minerals, and pointed to a recently announced Group of Seven action plan backed by C$70 million in Canadian investments.
“We can and will extract our minerals sustainably, refine them responsibly, and move them to market efficiently.”
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