Speech
April 29, 2026 Ottawa, Ontario
Check against delivery
Thank you, Ian, for that introduction. Good morning, everyone. Bonjour tout le monde.
It is a pleasure to be here today, at my first CNA Conference as Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. I am told this is the Oscars for the Canadian nuclear sector!
Canada is at a pivotal moment. We are facing disruption in our markets, trade, security,
technology and climate.Amid this disruption, we must find purpose, clarity, ambition and resolve.
That is what yesterday’s Spring Economic Update is about. It attacks the moment we are in by delivering targeted relief to make life more affordable while we strengthen Canada’s competitiveness and economic growth; supporting workers; accelerating the construction of homes and major infrastructure; and investing in strong, safe communities across the country.
This includes the Canada Strong Fund — Canada’s first national sovereign wealth fund — which will invest in key, strategic Canadian projects and companies.
It includes Team Canada Strong: a new, nationwide effort to recruit, train, and hire as many as 100,000 new skilled trade workers by 2030–2031.
And it includes a host of other measures that will build stronger, safer communities, including for Indigenous Peoples; a more connected country; and essential infrastructure.
The Economic Update — and this government’s entire agenda — is based on a simple idea: that history — and for those of you closer to my age, experience — has shown us that nations are tested not when everything is going well but when crisis strikes.
That is when you find out whether a country still knows how to act on its advantages.
Well, when it comes to Canada’s advantage, we really have to look no further than this room.
If I may, I would like to step back in time for a minute, over 100 years ago, a few hours from here, at McGill University, with the arrival of New Zealand–born physicist Ernest Rutherford as McGill’s new physics professor.
The story has it that Rutherford had some misgivings: at the time, Canada was hardly seen as a centre of the scientific world. But to his surprise, he showed up to the newest and best-equipped physics lab in the world.
That’s Canada — always beating expectations.
Within ten years, Rutherford and his Montreal team had cracked the code of radioactivity — the basis of nuclear science — and earned Canada our first Nobel Prize.
Just over a decade later, Canada’s first uranium deposit was discovered in Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, and we were officially off to the races.
In 1945, the first nuclear reactor outside the U.S. was started up two hours from
Ottawa — a breakthrough that laid the foundation for the CANDU™ reactor: a federally funded, uniquely Canadian nuclear design fuelled by natural, unenriched uranium that brought Canada’s first nuclear power plant to life in 1962.
Today, the nuclear sector employs over 90,000 Canadians, 90 percent of whom are in high-skill roles; contributes 13 percent of our national electricity supply; and adds $17 billion to the economy every year through the operation of 18 Canadian CANDUs at home and the servicing of nine reactors abroad in countries like Romania, India and South Korea.
This is possible because, unlike many of our allies, we have expertise up, down and across the supply chain — from designing and manufacturing high-precision components, to R&D, to servicing and building reactors abroad.
This strength is what will make us the first country in the G7 to host an SMR, at Darlington, the first nuclear energy project referred to our new Major Projects Office by the Prime Minister, backed up by a $2-billion investment from the Canada Growth Fund — the Fund’s biggest investment to date — and $1 billion from Ontario, through its Building Ontario Fund.
Of course, foundational to our nuclear leadership is our position as the world’s second-largest producer of uranium, with the largest high-grade reserves on the planet.
Our world-class uranium gives us the capacity to fuel our own reactor fleet while still exporting nearly 90 percent of our production to global markets — a true example of energy security.
The last time a new uranium mine was approved for construction in Canada was in 2004. But, excitingly, in the first two months of 2026, we approved two new mines, which, together, will produce enough uranium to power more than every home in Canada, two times over.
Finally, perhaps spoken about less but no less important: Canada also leads in areas that matter for long-term public confidence, including nuclear safety and radioactive waste management and the implementation of deep geological disposal, in partnership with the municipality of Ignace, Ontario, and the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation.
This is a perfect example of what we mean when we say, “Canada has what the world wants.”
Thirty-eight countries have now endorsed the goal of tripling nuclear capacity by 2050, and the International Energy Agency estimates nuclear investment could grow to as much as $200 billion annually by 2030 — more than double what it was in 2023.
A big part of that is the over 30 countries pursuing nuclear power for the very first time, many of which are looking to reduce dependence on geopolitically exposed energy sources, strengthen their sovereignty and secure long-term baseload power from trusted partners.
Canada is also working closely with allies such as the United Kingdom and Romania, who are turning to nuclear energy to meet climate goals while reinforcing national and regional energy security.
This nuclear renaissance is a climate opportunity.
It is an energy security opportunity.
But, crucially, it is an economic opportunity — for Canada, for provinces and territories, and for the over 250 companies that make up our nuclear supply chain.
We are extraordinarily well positioned to seize this opportunity.
A less ambitious country would rest on that advantage. Instead, under our new government, we will have — for the first time ever — a comprehensive Nuclear Energy Strategy, led by the federal government but developed in collaboration with provinces, industry, utilities, labour, Indigenous Peoples and beyond.
A Strategy that grows our advantage.
That powers our nation, and our allies.
A plan that seizes the opportunity before us.
I look forward to releasing this Strategy in the coming weeks, which will set the vision for Canada’s nuclear sector’s role in domestic and global energy security, our industrial strategy, our trade diversification agenda and our plan to be an energy superpower and the strongest economy in the G7.
But for today, I would like to preview what I am thinking about, as we develop the full Strategy.
First, enabling new nuclear builds. This pillar focuses on building big at home in both small- and large-scale nuclear. To do this, we must derisk nuclear investments, facilitate private and public financing, advance Indigenous partnership and prioritize projects that make economic and strategic sense.
Second, positioning Canada as a global supplier and exporter. As outlined in Budget 2025, we are assertively pursuing a nuclear energy trade strategy that will target priority markets and support Canadian players at all levels of the supply chain as they look abroad.
It almost goes without saying, but this folds perfectly into our government’s focus on diversifying and opening up new trade markets for Canada. And we will leverage all arms of government, including the Trade Commissioner Service and Export Development Canada, to tailor our export goals to key markets with the highest chance for success.
Third, strengthening uranium and fuel opportunities by making the most of our exceptional uranium resources domestically, in order to reliably meet the needs of allies’ nuclear fleet expansion with Canadian uranium.
Finally, we will focus on next-generation innovation, whether for power — such as SMRs, microreactors — or other areas, like fusion.
As we finalize this Strategy, I encourage those in this room to collaborate with us. If you have a project, tell us. If you have an idea, pitch it to us. This Strategy, this approach, only works if it is co-operative, pragmatic and guided by the real expertise you can only gain on the ground — expertise found in this room.
We are focused on nuclear energy security and innovation from coast to coast to coast.
But perhaps there is nowhere it is needed more than in our North, where bills are highest, energy security is most fragile and sovereignty is increasingly important.
In recognition of this reality, our Defence Industrial Strategy — and our efforts to bolster Canadian sovereignty — prioritize the North, including for new, dual-use infrastructure.
Of course, that infrastructure needs power. Ideally, power that is clean, reliable and Canadian.
That is why, today, I am announcing a new joint feasibility program with the Department of National Defence and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited that will assess the potential of Canadian-controlled microreactor technology in the North.
The Department of National Defence is investing over $40 million this fiscal year to examine whether next-generation microreactors can safely and reliably provide heat and electricity for remote and northern DND and Canadian Armed Forces facilities.
Importantly, while this work supports defence and sovereignty in remote regions, it also has broader civilian potential and could support remote communities and other industrial sites looking for clean, dependable power.
Finally, as those in this room know, all of this depends on technology.
That is why the federal government has committed $2.2 billion over ten years in capital investments at the Chalk River Laboratories, Canada’s national nuclear labs.
This includes the new Advanced Materials Research Centre and other critical infrastructure across the campus, which will combine the capabilities of existing, outdated facilities from the 1950s and 1960s into a modern facility and laboratory research complex that can support Canada’s continued nuclear energy leadership.
This facility will allow operators to conduct cutting-edge work to manipulate, cut and experiment with irradiated materials. It will ensure Canada leads the 21st century in CANDU™ technology; nuclear safety, security and forensics; small modular reactors; reactor fuel development; and supporting utilities with reactor life extension and reliability.
Our upcoming Strategy, alongside the work being done by DND and AECL, points to a broader truth: if we are serious about growing our economy, strengthening energy security and meeting our climate objectives, growing our electricity grid is the only answer.
Without a reliable, affordable, clean grid, economic growth, electrification, AI and data centre build-outs and industrial revitalization are just pipe dreams.
To that end, our Nuclear Energy Strategy will be complemented by a broader Electricity Strategy, focused on unlocking a grid that can power the Canada we are building.
This will take a true Team Canada effort — fortunately, that is already happening.
In November, our Memorandum of Understanding with Alberta included a workstream on collaborating on building and operating competitive nuclear power generation that can serve Alberta and inter-connected markets by 2050.
New Brunswick has signalled renewed interest in expanding nuclear capacity at Point Lepreau. Saskatchewan is actively exploring both large reactors and SMRs. And just a few days ago, Ontario and Yukon signed a new partnership agreement that represents the first steps toward deploying small modular reactors in the Yukon.
Moreover, Indigenous Peoples will continue to be key partners in shaping the future of nuclear energy in Canada. We will work to support Indigenous ownership, long-term partnerships and shared economic benefits in nuclear projects.
These are ambitions. But they are also concrete signals that provinces and territories across our country see nuclear energy as part of their economic and energy future. A future our federal government is laser-focused on enabling for all Canadians.
In conclusion, whether we are talking about large-scale reactors, SMRs or microreactors for remote and strategic applications; RD&D and new science and technology work; or the opportunity for thousands of good, Canadian careers — the direction is clear.
Nuclear energy is central to our future whether you are talking about our economy, our security, our climate or our role in the world.
The scale of the global opportunity is massive, but it is not one by which we should be intimidated.
It is one we should see as a chance for Canada’s nuclear sector to, as we always have, punch above our weight.
With a clear Strategy, backed by Team Canada and the expertise that exists in this room, Canadian nuclear energy will not only power our own homes, businesses and industry — we can power the world’s.
Thank you, merci beaucoup.
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