Natural Resources Committee on March 24th, 2026

[Natan Obed]

These are concurrent challenges and ones that have not necessarily been linked in the past or present. I understand the essential need for this country to diversify its export, to find new markets and to ensure that this country is doing all it can to secure its future, whether it be economic or from a defence and security perspective.

We have unfinished projects in the sustainability of our Inuit Nunangat communities. We have an infrastructure deficit that goes beyond energy infrastructure. We also have willing partners in sovereignty, defence and security.

The role Inuit communities play is an essential one in this country. I look forward to working with the Government of Canada, but also with all jurisdictions in which Inuit live, in order to ensure that—in this moment, when so much focus is on the Arctic—we can do what we can to create sustainability for our communities.

[Richard Martel, Conservative, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

According to the Inuit, which type of energy—natural gas, nuclear power, hydroelectricity, wind power or solar power—has the greatest potential for future sustainable exports?

[Natan Obed]

We don't necessarily have all the geological understanding of oil and gas reserves across our homeland—40% of Canada's land mass—largely because it has never been feasible for the state to pursue those interests. In the Beaufort Delta and the Beaufort Sea, there are some areas known to be rich in oil and gas. Up until now, it has not been in Canada's interest to pursue those.

Regarding emerging energy, whether it's about the world's greater dependence on nuclear or our known uranium deposits, especially in Nunatsiavut and the Baker Lake area of Nunavut.... Those could end up being conversations, again, for our jurisdictions.

Also, there are rare earth elements and other critical building pieces to alternative energy. Those are the other exports that we now know are in our homeland.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Thank you.

We are going to Mr. Hogan for five minutes.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Obed, for being here.

Canada spans 5,500 kilometres east-west but 4,600 kilometres north-south. We're almost as tall as we are wide. Our future, which is a shared future with the Inuit peoples, has always been in the north. I think this is a really important conversation we're having today, in particular because the north resists. It resists easy development. It's a humbling force. Building our future in the north is going to take co-operation. It's going to take foresight. There is an incredible opportunity if we can unlock it by working together. There are energy solutions in Inuit Nunangat that could support Canada and the world.

Mr. Martel asked you a number of questions that I was going to ask, in terms of how you see that future unfolding, so I won't dwell there too much. I want to ask less about specific projects.

When we talk about 20 to 30 years from now, what is the energy future you want for Inuit Nunangat in power generation, domestic integration and its role in export? Paint us a word picture for a second.

[Natan Obed]

First and foremost, it's been our desire to reduce our dependence on diesel for 30 years. If we could have a mix of clean energy solutions, whether it be hydro, wind, solar or others.... We still have not seriously considered small nuclear, but perhaps as technologies improve there may be an opportunity there. If we could have clean energy solutions within our communities, that would drive an economy that isn't just local anymore. We could have major Canadian businesses operate within our homeland and be able to provide the export of not only energy but also other goods and services that right now just aren't possible.

The feasibility for many of the natural resource projects across our homeland depends upon them being completely independent of any Inuit community or any Inuit supply chain. They are their own things. Flights go from St. John's directly to Baker Lake or Rankin Inlet to supply the mines there. Food rations come in from Manitoba, Ontario or Alberta directly to remote mines. We'd love to see more integration within our economies. We'd love to also be a player in the world economy, as we are now in certain areas, such as the fisheries, iron ore, nickel, cobalt and gold.

We do have a footprint in some of these very Canadian enterprises where we export. In the future, hopefully, especially with the Northwest Passage and with more essential infrastructure being built, we can make agreements with other parts of Canada to ensure that any export opportunities we have as a country can also include pathways through our homeland.

[Corey Hogan, Liberal, Calgary Confederation, AB]

That does lead pretty nicely into the next question I want to ask. It's about climate change, something we haven't talked a lot about yet, and about how that changes the landscape and what opportunities and threats it presents to Canada and the north. I'm wondering if you want to share with the committee your thoughts on that. I do think about it particularly in terms of 51 individual communities who will literally be facing rising tides and the risks that presents.

[Natan Obed]

Yes. It also gives me a chance to talk about the great care with which we want to do any of this for our environment and for all living things within it. We are very fortunate to live in a beautiful homeland where there are still polar bears, belugas, narwhals and other species that are found almost nowhere else on earth. We've lived side by side with these species for millennia. We hope to continue to work, in anything we do to support our communities, or for Canada, side by side with our environmental commitments.

Climate change isn't just about temperatures getting warmer. Extreme weather events are now a norm in our communities. They are not only a risk to us, to our people; they are also a risk to any of the development and any of the work we want to do in relation to energy or energy exports within our homeland. We're going to have to ensure that we have spill response and that we have corridors that are well understood. We still have a lot of mapping to do of seabeds and areas to ensure navigation. But first and foremost, we need to ensure the safety of our homelands, our people and anyone doing business in our homeland. We need to mitigate and adapt to the changing threats due to climate change. We're seeing our regions warm three to four times the national average. Our homeland has been transformed. But we still have resilience, and we still have hope to be sustainable within it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Thank you both.

Mr. Simard, you have two and a half minutes.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Obed, we talked about many things. I understand the challenges. We just talked about the impact of climate change on your communities and about energy trade corridors. We spoke earlier about energy sources and energy costs, which are quite high in your area.

If we could set one or more priorities right now for better community maintenance and development, what might they look like?

[Natan Obed]

Our communities still have very essential needs, the need for health care, food, housing and education. We're trying to work with all the jurisdictions we live in as well as the federal government to ensure that we can do better moving forward in the future.

Among the essential building blocks in our modern treaties is the ability to create business and business development that will, in turn, fund our self-determination, self-governance and the interventions we want to give to our communities. It is all hands on deck, whether it be through the social policy considerations we are still working with this government on or through economic and business developments, which we hope will have a positive influence in our communities.

These larger things coming to our homeland are not things people necessarily think about every day. There's survival that people are still focused on, in many cases, and the real desire to keep our culture, language and society thriving. Canadian or diplomatic concerns, whether they're about Arctic nation-states or the world, are things that our organization also tackles, but if you were in Baker Lake or Kimmirut today, people would want to talk about housing, affordability, food and poverty.

It's up to us to try to figure out how to ensure that their needs are met, but also that opportunities are there for people. I think that's universal across this country.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Thank you, both.

We'll go to Mr. Malette for five minutes, followed by Mr. Guay for five minutes to wrap up.

[Gaétan Malette, Conservative, Kapuskasing—Timmins—Mushkegowuk, ON]

Mr. Obed, we've asked you many questions. I understand that there are going to be different areas. It could be hydro or solar. Among the 17 projects, where does the Manitoba project stand? Is it one of your priorities?

The main question, really, is this: What would you ask of this committee? What would you like to tell us? We've asked you questions about the future, but what would you like to ask us, or what should we be doing to help you get to where you want to be?

[Natan Obed]

I'll answer the first question.

The Kivalliq hydro-fibre project is an Inuit-led project from proponents in Nunavut. It is one of our 17 priority projects. I work on behalf of all Inuit, and for each of these 17, I'm championing in different places and in different ways. This has been a project that has been ongoing for over five years now, with a lot of focus on outreach to the federal government. Manitoba is onside, the Government of Nunavut is onside and Inuit and Nunavut are onside. We really hope that we can get this one across the finish line. It would be transformative.

Not only that, there is a new university that will be opening up in 2030. The Inuit Nunangat university will be in Arviat, which is one of the communities that would be serviced by the Kivalliq hydro-fibre link.

As for what I might want to say to all of you, the relationship between Canadians and indigenous peoples is complex, and it often gets reduced to slogans or reduced to black and white. The idea that indigenous peoples or, in this case, Inuit might want to participate or might not want to participate in certain energy projects or energy export is something that I think is very natural as a part of this democracy.

I know that in the past there has been this spectre of veto that is often thrown around in relation to indigenous peoples and natural resource extraction, but I'd like to say that I see the same concept being used today when different jurisdictions in this country are saying “yes” or “no” to pipelines through their jurisdictions. It is a natural part of doing what's best for your jurisdiction.

Inuit have a democracy as well. We'll show up and we'll consider, but we will do all we can to ensure our best interests are upheld and that our partnerships are carefully crafted and are in mutual interest. That is where we are. It's a wonderful place to be for Canada as a nation-state, in relation to just about any other nation-state in the world where there are indigenous people. There are no other countries that have taken the leadership on the implementation of the UN declaration, and there are very few countries that have a section 35 recognizing the rights of the specific indigenous people.

I want to say to everyone that this is an asset. I'd love to be a part of leaning into how we can make this work, rather than the fear-based consideration of what will happen if indigenous people oppose. I just want to leave that with all of you.

[Gaétan Malette, Conservative, Kapuskasing—Timmins—Mushkegowuk, ON]

I want to come back to the Manitoba project. You've said that everyone is on board. What could we do? What's the last mile to be done? What can this committee do? Would you like to tell us?

[Natan Obed]

I think that if the committee is summarizing or making findings in this particular deliberation, supporting energy infrastructure in Inuit Nunangat and referring back to the previous pledges of getting our communities off diesel can be a part of a natural evolution rather than something that is forced in by an overriding of political will, if there is a way to reference the past commitments that then link very neatly into this particular project.

It also fits within the project of diversifying Canada's exports. That Manitoba hydro is probably going somewhere right now. If it is an excess use to Manitoba, perhaps it's going south. If it goes north, that is I think a net gain for this country.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Thank you.

Our final speaker this morning for this round is Mr. Guay for five minutes.

[Claude Guay, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Obed, thank you very much for being here.

First, I want to commend you for the approach and the desire to work together on this opportunity that we have for the Government of Canada and with your nation going forward.

I have a couple of questions that we haven't discussed thus far. We talked a bit about climate change and climate warming. There's going to be more traffic in the north. There's a lot of discussion about the port of Churchill and traffic through Hudson Bay and the Northwest Passage. A lot of the first nations you represent are distributed in the north in coastal communities. How do you see that going forward and what should we be careful about?

[Natan Obed]

We are in an advantageous position in that we have settled treaties. For some parts of this country, especially in British Columbia, there is still a lot of work to do on settling treaties. For ours, we are now in the implementation phase, and each one of these treaties has co-management bodies that are appointed from the federal government, the public government jurisdiction and from the Inuit, or, if there are overlaps, perhaps there are first nations interests as well.

Those bodies can be essential in ensuring that, for any of the projects we do that will increase ship traffic going through places where ships have not gone before, especially in the Northwest Passage, we do all we can to mitigate the worst effects, ensure that our environmental assessment processes are followed and that we have community buy-in for the work that we're doing.

We've already seen over the last 20 years a tenfold or more increase in ship traffic across our homeland, whether it be private vessels, cruises or military or foreign vessels that are going through unannounced. This is a continuing trend, and we don't expect it to stop.

The consideration for our communities is that we want to be included but not overwhelmed by all of this new traffic and all of this new activity. In the past, basically, as I've already mentioned, there have been fly-in and fly-out operations or a complete bypassing of our communities in any of the considerations for major business or major military expansion in the Arctic. We want to be included in these and have some auxiliary benefits as business, trade and other opportunities come to our homeland.

I'll give one example, which might seem far afield but I think should resonate. There are fish quotas for shrimp, for turbot and for other species in our homeland. Virtually none of that catch is offloaded in our homeland, and none of it is distributed to our people at all for sale. All of the markets are either in the U.S. or Asia. We already have systems where we are catching food and we're shipping it thousands of kilometres away to feed other people while we have a 68% food insecurity issue within our homeland.

We don't want to repeat those same types of structures across all the different business lines within Inuit Nunangat, our homeland. I hope that we can actually do the reverse and integrate our communities into any of the considerations for any development or any positive projects that are coming down the line.

[Claude Guay, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, QC]

Thank you.

On a different topic that I think we talked about earlier, I want to give you a chance to expand. There's no one-size-fits-all for participation, from equity to job creation to co-ownership, in terms of benefits of involving first nations. Is there a preference? Is it all of the above? Someone asked about the indigenous loan guarantee, but you mentioned it's only one dimension, so maybe you could expand on the preferred methods of participation.

[Natan Obed]

There are also targets that the Government of Canada has publicly stated about the percentage of RFP responses that are indigenous. We would love to have more of a distinctions-based consideration for those government ambitions as well so that there is Inuit, first nations, Métis, or even a geographic consideration such that, if there are opportunities in Inuit Nunangat, Inuit are the indigenous peoples who benefit from these these programs.

Our land claims, again, and all of the economic development business that flows through the provisions in our land claims are also essential for the Government of Canada and any other business partners to understand and to utilize when we're moving forward with opportunities within our homeland as well. Our modern treaties are set up in a way that the.... We went from having aboriginal title to 100% of our lands to a thoughtful exchange of that aboriginal title to fee simple title and then benefits within the larger settlement area. The considerations for economic development and for business are already baked into the idea of how we made a deal with this country.

Now we're in a moment where we can realize some of that. Some of the economic development opportunities that were never possible in the 1980s or 1990s are suddenly at our doorstep. We need to now recognize that we've already done our homework and, for the Inuit context, ensure that the economic development and business aspects are upheld and embraced.

The last part is that the complexity of the relationship between not only the federal government but also provinces, territories and the different first nations, Inuit and Métis who live and have rights within these jurisdictions should be first in the minds of those who are wishing to do business with us. You're not going to go to a southern Alberta band and ask them to do a joint venture on a project in north Baffin in Nunavut. There are a lot of people who really don't know that complexity, who just see indigenous, check a box, and you're done. We need to ensure that there is thoughtfulness and also accountability in all aspects of the work we do with one another.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Thank you.

Colleagues, that brings our time to an end with this witness.

Mr. Obed, you mentioned the words “thoughtful exchange”. I think that's exactly what we had over the last hour. We really appreciate your being with us and portraying those important priorities for Inuit very clearly today.

Thank you, colleagues, for that.

Thank you, Mr. Obed, on behalf of the committee.

We will be breaking for about five minutes while we prepare for the next panel.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Colleagues, welcome back. We're going to resume our meeting.

I'd like to welcome our witnesses on this second panel.

We have with us Marie-Christine Doran, full professor at the School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa.

We have, from the Canadian Nuclear Association, George Christidis, president and chief executive officer.

Online, we have Bryan Moon, president of Hydrogen Canada Corp., and his colleague Brendan O'Connell, vice-president, business development.

All witnesses on the screen have conducted a mandatory witness onboarding test.

I'll just make a few comments for the benefit of our witnesses, particularly our new ones.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. All comments should be made through the chair.

You will each have five minutes for your opening remarks, after which we will open the floor to questions.

Professor Doran, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Marie-Christine Doran, Full Professor, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, As an Individual]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Honourable committee members, thank you for this invitation.

I just gave a course at Global Affairs Canada on new trade opportunities for Canada, particularly in Latin America, my region of expertise.

In general, Canada is experiencing an unprecedented period of opportunities for trade with Latin America, particularly when it comes to our natural resource exports and our expertise in green energy and the energy transition. These opportunities are clustered in certain countries that fortunately remain Canada's long-standing and reliable trading partners and that also remain committed to upholding international law, multilateralism and the rule of law.

In stark contrast, unfortunately, other countries in Latin America—in particular close allies of the Trump administration—are quite frankly deliberately weakening the legal framework that normally guarantees predictable and stable trade relations. The corruption indexes in these countries are also on the rise, along with violence linked to drug trafficking and repeated states of exception.

Let's look in more detail at what this means for us. Let's start with the unprecedented opportunities for Canada. The countries that remain reliable partners as middle powers committed to multilateralism, the rule of law and—it bears repeating—reliable and fair trade agreements are Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay.

Since 2025, we've seen an unprecedented deepening of our bilateral relations with Mexico. In particular, we've seen the solid implementation of the Canada-Mexico Action Plan 2025‑2028 components, backed by new resources from both governments. The Canadian embassy in Mexico and the Mexican embassy in Canada confirmed this during a course that I gave, as I told you, at Global Affairs Canada.

According to the Canadian government, Mexico is a key market for Canadian exporters, particularly in the agriculture, clean technology, energy—not oil, but green energy—mining, automotive and aerospace industries.

Mexico is a key ally. The country has risen from the 15th to the 12th largest economy in the world since 2018. It's also a solid democracy that shows great respect for checks and balances, first nations, human rights and multilateralism.

There are also new opportunities for Canada. We've been invited to join new multilateral—and I emphasize multilateral—trade agreements, such as Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance. Accepting this invitation would help to achieve the objectives of our five partner countries, which actively promote these platforms. In this respect, Canada's support for trade relations that uphold rights and international law plays a crucial role in deepening our relations with Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. Remember that Colombia is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. All these countries appreciate Canada's values.

It's also worth mentioning that Mexico, Colombia and Brazil recently entered into an agreement to promote trade multilateralism in response to threats from the Trump administration. We're really seeing new alliances emerging that Canada could take part in.

Now let's look at the risks. In sharp contrast, we have a polarized region. A number of other countries are no longer reliable partners for Canada. They pose a risk to our exports and investments. These countries are Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia, Argentina and, perhaps, Chile and Costa Rica. We have free trade agreements with a number of these countries. Yet these countries are currently weakening or even destroying the rule of law and—it bears repeating—the regulatory frameworks needed for reliable trade.

Let's take an example. The new Bolivian president, Rodrigo Paz, eliminated the justice department. The presidency now controls all the functions of this department. Of course, this entails major risks for corruption, mismanagement and trade.

These countries also face a risk of increased violence. Paradoxically, they want to follow the example of El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele. However, the violence has been on the rise since the implementation of states of exception and the weakening of checks and balances. For instance, Ecuador has been the most violent country in the Americas since 2023 or since the implementation of these methods.

According to the Global Organized Crime Index 2025, the Bukele government is also involved at high levels in new cartels, despite its fake good reputation and the fact that President Trump calls Bukele “the world's coolest dictator”.

All these countries currently governed by the far right belong to the new United States‑led Shield of the Americas coalition. This point is significant for Canada. Since the proclamation of the infamous “Donroe” doctrine, which notably led to the military intervention in Venezuela, the United States' role has also had a major negative impact on Canada's trade relations.

Remember that the doctrine proclaims the right of the United States to obtain the strategic natural resources needed for its hegemonic role in the Americas and to control domestic politics. It's almost unbelievable.

In early March, the United States carried out unprecedented joint military operations with Ecuador. An agreement was signed with Honduras, which also shows the United States' desire to ensure military control of natural resources.

You can see a worrying picture in this area, which we need to keep in mind.

[The Chair, Liberal, Terry Duguid]

Professor, if you could, please wrap up.

Thank you.