Minister Tim Hodgson Keynote Address: “The Business of Building: Canada’s Mission” Financial Post and Calgary Economic Development Event Calgary, Alberta

Press Release

From: Natural Resources Canada

February 13, 2026

Good morning, everyone. Bonjour à tous, et merci d’être là.

It’s great to be here today, including with some of my colleagues across governments. Thank you to Corey Hogan [Member of Parliament for Calgary Federation], Minister Nathan Neudorf [Alberta Minister of Affordability and Utilities] and Mayor Jeromy Farkas [Mayor, City of Calgary] for being here today.

Let me start by congratulating the Financial Post on the opening of its Western Bureau here in Calgary late last year, which is what sparked this event. My best wishes to Reid Southwick and his team. Reid, I look forward to our fireside chat just after this.

This event is important, because the place where journalists choose to be tells us something about where our country is going.

I see this as a vote of confidence in Western Canada, in Alberta and in the idea that the most important stories in this country are not only in boardrooms and capitals but also at job sites, oil rigs and ports.

Can I just say, it’s good to be back home on the Prairies.

As many of you know, this is where I trace my roots. My grandmother was born in Moosejaw, then in the Northwest Territories before the province of Saskatchewan came into being. My mum was born here in Calgary, and most of her family still lives here. And I spent most of my childhood in Manitoba, enjoying the same cold, Prairie winter we’re enjoying in Calgary today.

I may be a Toronto MP now, but being a Prairie boy is what shapes how I do my job. It’s the Prairie spirit that taught me Canada is at its best when we build real things and create real opportunities.

I know that instinct runs deep in Alberta, and it’s exactly the instinct Canada needs right now.

We need it because it cannot be overstated — as the Prime Minister said so well in Davos — that we are living through a moment of profound global change. Our economic integration with hegemons is being weaponized against us. Energy markets are volatile. Capital is more cautious. Climate disruption is real. And geopolitical competition is reshaping who we trade with and how we must view our sovereignty.

This is a rupture — a time of reckoning. It is not a wave we can ride, hoping to return to a familiar shore. Nostalgia is not a strategy. To put it in Western terms: We must seize the bull by the horn to ensure our country continues to be the best country in the world in which to live and raise a family.

To respond to the reality of today’s world, our Prime Minister has laid out a clear approach, guided by principled pragmatism. Our principles allow us to refuse false choices between economic growth and climate action, between openness and security, and between values and competitiveness. Our pragmatism guides us to focus on what we can control in a world where it feels like we cannot control much.

Today, I want to talk about that mission, the progress we have already made and where we are headed next.

I view this mission to control what we can control as having four pillars that, together, form the spine of our plan to make Canada not only an energy superpower — and the strongest economy in the G7 — but a thriving, confident, liveable country, one we can be proud to pass on to the next generation of Prairie boys and girls.

These pillars are our economic strength; our national security; our climate resilience; and our thriving democracy. If you will allow me, I would like to speak briefly about each.

Our Economic Strength: Building, Competing, Delivering

Our first priority is ensuring the economic strength of Canada, but not in the abstract: we are focused on term sheets signed, investments made and KPIs hit. Projects either get built or they don’t; capital either flows here or it goes elsewhere; and families either see new opportunities before them or they don’t.

That’s why the centrepiece of my economic strategy as Minister of Energy and Natural Resources is the Major Projects Office, headquartered right here in Calgary.

For too long, Canada allowed good projects to be trapped in years of uncertainty and delay. We can be proud of high standards when it comes to sustainability and Indigenous consultation. But accountability was too diffuse: one project but many departments and endless process.

Moreover, that process was focused on whether we got a shovel in the ground or a new good to market, not how. It assumed we had the luxuries of endless time; unfettered free trade; and an ally to our south that believed in free trade and respected our sovereignty.

These assumptions are simply not true anymore. We didn’t ask for that change. But we must respond to it.

That’s why we decided we had to change, too.

The Major Projects Office is about delivery, not delay: one window, clear timelines and accountability across government. It’s about speed with integrity — building responsibly but building decisively.

At the same time, Canada is re-engaging the global economy based on the world as it is, not as we may wish it to be.

In just the last six months, the Prime Minister has signed 13 trade and security agreements across four continents. Since August 2025 alone, Natural Resources Canada has signed 35 new agreements with more than 15 partners, opening markets for Canadian energy, minerals, agriculture, manufacturing and technology.

These are not symbolic agreements. They are commercial enablers. They reduce risk, unlock financing and give Canadian companies predictable access to global demand.

We also did something long overdue: removing internal and interprovincial trade barriers that should never have existed inside a country like Canada.

Economists estimate that eliminating those barriers could boost our GDP by as much as $200 billion, roughly $5,100 per Canadian. That is growth that had been left on the table. Now, we are done with leaving it there.

Critically, we are also putting industry and manufacturing back at the centre of our national economic strategy. The Government of Canada is acknowledging workers in the oil sands, auto supply chains and industrial factories as what they have always been: the backbone of this great nation.

Our Auto Strategy and our Defence Industrial Strategy are about rebuilding capacity at home so that Canada is not simply a supplier of inputs but a builder of value. And when unfair tariffs threaten Canadian workers and industries, including softwood lumber and steel, we’re standing up for them — not only supporting them today but ensuring they have the skills they need to thrive in the industries of tomorrow.

For Alberta, our economic strategy is anchored in the Canada–Alberta Memorandum of Understanding.

That MOU lays out a clear and credible path to create the conditions necessary for nation-building infrastructure: pipelines; rail; power generation; an integrated transmission grid; ports; and the rest of the crucial systems that move Alberta’s world-class energy and resources to market.

This is how we diversify our exports. This is how we unlock investment and create jobs. This is how we power emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence. And this is how we increase our economic security while strengthening our sovereignty.

But here’s the most important point: Economic growth is not an end unto itself.

Growth must translate into lived security for Canadians. Into paycheques that cover the mortgage. Into confidence that the heat will stay on when it gets cold. Into the ability to raise, feed and clothe a family. And into optimism that tomorrow will be better than today.

As I said a moment ago, it’s the Prairie boy in me that looks at resource and infrastructure projects and sees more than pipes and steel. I see good jobs, jobs that have allowed my friends and family to put roofs over heads, buy homes and build stable, dignified lives. And I see Canada’s best bet to generate the revenue that pays for the things we care about as Canadians and that make us proud of this country: affordable childcare, universal healthcare, and pharmacare and pensions for seniors.

It’s also the Prairie pragmatism in me that knows building major projects and retooling our economy are not something we can do in just a few months, and that we must re-double our efforts as we have no time to lose while families struggle to afford basic necessities today.

That’s why, while we’re aggressively pursuing longer-term economic goals, we’re also acting directly on affordability through grocery supports; new EV rebates; the removal of internal trade barriers to lower prices; and the most ambitious plan in Canadian history to build millions of new, affordable homes.

But I want to add that economic success like what we are looking to unlock does not exist without economic reconciliation.

As Albertan businesses know, Indigenous participation in major projects is not a side issue — it’s a core economic strategy and a matter of sovereignty equal to that of other issues we talk about.

Indigenous ownership strengthens projects, reduces risk and ensures that prosperity is shared. That’s why the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program is so important, and why, in Alberta, we’re hoping to also leverage the innovative and groundbreaking work of the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation.

These programs are unlocking Indigenous equity ownership in major energy, resource and infrastructure projects across the country, creating durable wealth, building new partnership and ensuring long-term economic security.

This is reconciliation in action. It’s also just smart nation building.

Our National Security: Sovereignty in a Volatile World

Our second pillar is national security. When I think national security these days, I also think sovereignty and stability.

Canada is a trading nation — a middle power. We depend on stability and respect for sovereignty. But these conditions cannot be assumed anymore.

We are protecting Canadian sovereignty in concrete terms.

That includes strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces, meeting NATO’s two- and five-percent targets and ensuring our defence commitments are credible to our allies and to Canadians themselves.

It also means ensuring immigration and public safety policies meet the moment with appropriate immigration targets; strengthening action on crime through policies like bail reform; and hiring 1,000 new RCMP personnel so communities feel safe and remain confident in the rule of law. It also means tailoring our temporary foreign worker programs to meet diverse regional needs.

But security today is broader than defence alone.

Ottawa has awoken to something Western Canada has known for a long time: energy and mineral security is also national security. A country that cannot supply its own energy, process its own minerals or build its own infrastructure cannot be truly sovereign.

That’s why we are diversifying energy exports so Canada is never beholden to a single market, while at the same time investing in domestic energy and mining industries so we can be our own best customer.

The resources produced in Alberta and across Western Canada matter for defence, manufacturing, infrastructure and the transition to net zero. As a result, and simply put, strengthening our resources at home protects Canada’s independence.

Our Climate Resilience: Competing in the Energy Transition

Our third pillar is climate resilience.

The energy transition is both a challenge and an opportunity — something Alberta understands better than most.

The global shift to a low-carbon economy is accelerating, and it’s changing how growth happens and where capital flows.

We need to secure affordable, reliable, clean energy. We need to build responsibly the first time around by meeting our Duty to Consult and ensuring Indigenous Peoples are true partners and by protecting our environment so we don’t have to clean up mistakes later.

That’s why we’re advancing a Climate Competitiveness Strategy that focuses on catalyzing new investments, not on prohibitions. This strategy strengthens industrial carbon pricing, provides regulatory clarity, boosts clean investment through tax credits and mobilizes capital toward net zero.

The landmark Canada–Alberta MOU, signed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Danielle Smith, is a central pillar of this approach.

It commits us to reducing the emissions intensity of Canadian heavy oil production to best-in-class levels by 2050, leveraging CCUS technology in which Canada has long been a leader. It sees us growing our exports of decarbonized oil and the lowest carbon intensity LNG in the world. It increases electricity generation to meet consumer and industrial demand — including by AI data centres — while achieving net-zero emissions in the power sector. It aligns affordability, grid stability and competitiveness to attract private capital. It simplifies regulatory systems with a maximum two-year approval timeline. And it creates meaningful opportunities for Indigenous ownership, partnership and benefit sharing.

That’s not ideology, that’s principled, pragmatic industrial strategy. It’s a plan that focuses on results, not politics — and that’s principled pragmatism in action.

Our Thriving Democracy: The Institutions That Hold It Together

Our fourth pillar is about ensuring our democracy continues to thrive in a world where democracy everywhere is under threat.

Around the world, the democratic values Canadians hold dear are under attack: the rule of law; free markets; fair elections; and a vocal, diverse public square.

A free, independent media is essential to all of that, and this is why today matters. The opening of the Financial Post’s Western Bureau is a statement that Western Canada’s economic story deserves to be told from here, by people who understand it.

As the Prime Minister said in Davos, in an era of great power rivalry, “The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.”

Canada rejects that logic. We believe in rules, institutions and accountability that create a society better than one defined by the law of the jungle. That society includes a press that is free to ask hard questions and to tell the full story, on the ground where the story is happening.

Across the border and around the world, recent events show that we cannot take these values for granted. Indeed, we cannot take the existence of our own democracy — and of Canada as we know it — for granted.

Canada will always stand up for these democratic values.

As a Western Canadian, and as a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, I will always stand up for a strong, united Canada.

We’re certainly not perfect. But as Winston Churchill said while standing in the House of Commons on which ours was modelled, “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried.”

It’s Time to Build on These Pillars and Our Other Strengths

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the greatest country in the world, and every single part of it — every single province — is what makes it that way.

In fact, I would challenge all Canadians to name a better place to live. Not an imaginary country that has some of this and some of that. But a real one that, in its entirety, is better than Canada.

I have been to at least 60 countries, and I have lived in many. And I know — without a shadow of a doubt — that Canada is the best place for me.

Let me close with this: Alberta has always understood that prosperity is something you construct, not something you inherit. It requires action.

That spirit is guiding Canada today.

It guides our government, and it’s the mantra I come back to, over and over again: It’s time to build.

To build projects. To build partnerships. To build security. To build homes we can afford. To build an economy that works for families. And to build institutions strong enough to carry us forward.

Congratulations and thank you again to the Financial Post and to everyone for being here today.

And thank you for being part of the story of a country that is getting back to work. Merci.

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