OTTAWA — President Joe Biden’s top envoy in Canada said federal-provincial tensions over critical minerals development are a drag on the industry.
The antagonism is “not a productive exercise for easing the investment climate and furthering the growth” of the industry, U.S. Ambassador David Cohen told a room of business leaders and policymakers Thursday.
Cohen did not name specific premiers, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has at times clashed with resource-rich provinces, including Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Cohen, sitting alongside Teck CEO Jonathan Price at a breakfast event sponsored by AmCham Canada and the Business Council of Canada, said jurisdictional friction “does not attract enough attention, particularly in Ottawa, as I look around the room.”
