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OTTAWA — Calling the development and export of Canada’s resources “nation building,” federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver says Canada must seize a once-in-a-lifetime energy opportunity or watch the associated economic benefits disappear.
But cultivating Canada’s natural resources demands that governments do more to earn the social licence to develop the oil, gas, diamond, uranium and other lucrative deposits found across the country, he said Monday at the annual meeting of Canada’s energy and mines ministers in Yellowknife, N.W.T.
Yet, groups observing the talks, such as Environmental Defence, say the feeling around the conference is “very disconnected with the reality” of Canadians’ concerns about the impacts of natural resource development on land, water and air.
In a keynote speech to fellow ministers, Oliver compared the development and export of the country’s natural resources to the building of the railroad across Canada or construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The country’s economic prosperity is not a birthright, he said, meaning Canada must capitalize on its resource bounty while it still can.