Please check against delivery
“Natural Resources: Canada’s Advantage, Canada’s Opportunity”
Introduction
Thanks very much, David, and thanks to everyone for joining us.
It’s something of an occasion today, because I have some impressive new numbers from Canada’s natural resource sector to share with Canadians. And this is a great place to announce it, in the heart of Toronto’s financial services industry, which has contributed so much to Canadian capital formation, industrial growth and prosperity for Canadians across the country.
We all know that natural resources have been a key driver of Canada’s economy for decades. There’s good reason for that. This country has a tremendous natural wealth: huge capacities and reserves of energy, including the third-largest proven oil reserves in the world. We have tremendous hydroelectric capacity, massive tracts of forests and an abundance of minerals and metals. Of course, it’s not enough to have the resources.
You have to do something with them and very few people have capitalized on their natural bounty the way Canadians have. Only five countries produce more oil than we do.