Canada's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson has announced 26 new investments, partnerships and measures to unlock C$6.4-billion of critical minerals projects…These initiatives are being advanced under the newly-launched G7 Critical Minerals Production Alliance, which Canada is leading as part of its broader agenda to build resilient, secure and sustainable mineral supply chains…“This first round of G7 Alliance projects sends the world a very clear signal: we are serious about reducing market concentration and dependencies, safeguarding national security and sovereignty, mobilising capital, and driving investments in sustainable critical minerals projects,” said Hodgson said during the closing press conference of the G7 Energy and Environment Ministers’ meeting in Toronto…In his remarks he also underlined Canada’s role in sovereign-capability building, announcing that the government has “issued an order in council under the Defence Production Act officially designating critical minerals as essential to Canadian defence and national interests. This enables Canada to launch our own defence stockpiling regime and to support multilateral stockpiling efforts.”…That step, he said, would “strengthen our capabilities in strategic sectors and contribute to NATO and defence-spending commitments. By protecting domestic production under volatile global conditions, we ensure a secure supply of critical minerals to Canadian and allied defence industries.”…"We are no longer just talking. Today is a proof of concept: now it is time to sustain and accelerate progress," said Hodgson…He added that as the world moves more swiftly to reduce dependence on concentrated supply chains, “our collective commitment is clear: every delay is a concession of economic and national-security interests, and we will no longer accept that”…Against the backdrop of increasing global competition for strategic minerals, Canada’s approach through the alliance emphasises public-private capital mobilisation, offtake agreements, processing capacity and multilateral partnerships.

The investments are being made as part of a multilateral push to boost the G7’s presence in critical minerals in the face of global domination by China in many of the metals needed for the modern economy…In his closing ceremony speech at the G7 in Toronto on Friday, Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson said the G7 investments will safeguard Canada’s national security and sovereignty by reducing dependence on China and investing in sustainable critical minerals projects…“This demonstrates to the world that we can leverage multilateralism to address the current crisis we are facing on critical minerals supply chains,” he said…In order to facilitate the stockpiling of critical minerals, the federal government is invoking the Defence Production Act. This allows Canada to launch its own defence stockpiling regime, similar to what the U.S. has in place…“These measures will strengthen our capabilities in strategic sectors and contribute to NATO and defence spending commitments,” Mr. Hodgson added. “By protecting domestic production under volatile global conditions, we ensure a secure supply of critical minerals to Canadian and allied defence industries.”…The investments see nine allied countries participating alongside Canada, namely France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, the United States, Australia and Ukraine…U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright in a press conference at the G7 on Friday said the ability to mine, process and refine critical minerals is a “strategic necessity” for the G7 and its allies, given the massive risk posed by China….“China, frankly, just used non-market practices to squish the rest of the world out of manufacturing those products, so it got strategic leverage. Everybody sees that now,” he said.