“The North’s time has come, my friends, and you ain’t seen nothing yet,” says Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
RENO (MINEWEB) – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggests that the untapped mining, oil and natural gas resources in Canada’s North could generate enough cash to turn the country into an economic powerhouse.
During his current tour of Canada’s North, Harper suggested that over the next decade there are more than 500 large new development projects being proposed for Canada, which collectively will be worth more than “a half a trillion dollars.”
He estimates that 30 new mining projects will be developed across the North over the next decade.
While touring the Minto copper-gold mine in the Yukon Tuesday, Harper witnessed the signing by Yukon Premier Darrell Pasloksi and John Duncan, Canada’s minister of aboriginal affairs and northern development, of amendments to resource revenue sharing agreements which will ensure a greater portion of the revenues generated from the mining and resource economy in the territory will be available to the territory.
“Our government is committed to ensuring that Northerners benefit from the tremendous natural reserves that are found in their region,” Harper said. “For the benefits to flow, it is necessary to get resource projects up and running in an effective and responsible way and to put agreements in place with territorial governments to ensure that revenues generated by these initiatives stay up North.”
However, Ottawa and the governments in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories have also been working on new revenue sharing agreements, but have not yet reached an accord.
During a speech Monday to Conservatives in Carcross, Yukon, Harper said, “Those who want to see the future of this country should look north.”
“Because that great national dream-the development of northern resources-no longer sleeps. It is not down the road. It is happening now,” he stressed. “The North’s time has come, my friends, and you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
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