Prime Minister Mark Carney publicly declined to guarantee US access to Canada’s critical minerals while pitching a new federal Ontario agreement designed to compress timelines for mine and major-project approvals, including for the Ring of Fire.
Speaking in Ottawa alongside Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Carney said the arrangement targets “one-project, one-review and one-decision” for major infrastructure projects in the province, positioning the framework as a faster approval path without committing output to any single customer.
“It’s a potential opportunity for the United States, but it’s not an assured opportunity for the United States,” Carney said, adding that the issue sits inside broader trade discussions and that “we have other partners around the world, in Europe for example, who are very interested in participating in those value chains.”
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The Ring of Fire referenced in the announcement is described as roughly 500 km north of Thunder Bay, with Ford pressing for years to develop the region’s critical minerals and recently pitching it as an economic imperative amid US tariffs.
Canada currently lists 31 minerals as “critical,” including lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper and rare earth elements, anchoring Carney’s leverage point: Canada can expand value chains with the US, but it can also allocate investment and offtake relationships elsewhere.
Ford called the new agreement “transformational,” arguing it will give investors and proponents certainty.
Mechanically, the arrangement allows Ottawa to defer to provincial processes for environmental assessments and Indigenous consultations for major projects that fall under the federal Impact Assessment Act.
This comes after Canada was missing from the initial signatory list for the US-unveiled Pax Silica economic security coalition focused on critical minerals and advanced technologies, relegating Canada to “observer status.”
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