Just now, as this piece is filed, Canada and the United States are blowing through a leader-set deadline for an agreement on international trade. That “deadline” was already delayed by U.S. President Donald Trump, making the lack of any agreement now all the more troubling. The political relationship between these neighbouring countries is being described by pundits as tenuous and unpredictable. At the same time, if you follow the money through the recent uncertainty, there is at least one area where Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney have been speaking and acting in lock step: the development of critical minerals supply.

Both leaders say there needs to be greater domestic production of these resources, coveted globally for their significance in modern manufacturing. Their respective governments are looking to secure more sources of raw minerals and more secondary processing for materials made from those minerals.

Both Canada and the U.S. have made public investments with the openly-stated goal of growing production capabilities for critical minerals and their derivatives. That includes cross-border investments, even while Canada-U.S. relations have been strained. The spending can be linked back to a Canada-U.S. Joint Action Plan on Critical Minerals Collaboration finalized in 2020. But that’s not all: more investments are promised on both sides of the border.

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