Jairo Yunis and Elmira Aliakbari are analysts at the Fraser Institute.
The COVID recession has hurt Canada’s natural resources sector, with supply disruptions, commodity price declines and greater uncertainty regarding future demand. Not surprisingly, capital investment in the Canadian mining industry has dropped to its lowest level since 2009.
Of course, business investment should be a key pillar of Canada’s economic recovery, as the governor of the Bank of Canada recently stated in a speech delivered to the Vancouver Board of Trade.
Amid these conditions, government policies are critically important in attracting much-needed investment. And according to our recent survey, policy uncertainty continues to hurt several Canadian provinces in the eyes of mining investors.
Every year mining investors are surveyed around the world to determine which jurisdictions are attractive – or unattractive – for investment based on government policies and geological potential.
The survey spotlights policies (taxes, duplicative regulations, availability of labour and skills, etc.) that impact investment decisions. The most attractive jurisdictions in the world match their mineral potential with a competitive policy environment and/or overcome a lack of mineral potential with solid policies.
For the rest of this column: https://troymedia.com/politicslaw/policy-uncertainty-continues-to-hurt-canadas-mining-industry/#.YFIafp1Kg2w