Canada PM compares ‘dangerous’ Alberta separatist bid to Brexit

AFP 

June 6, 2026 

Alberta separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre delivered dozens of boxes with signatures of supporters to provincial officials earlier this month – Copyright AFP Henry MARKEN

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday compared Alberta’s plans to consider separating from Canada to Brexit, calling it “dangerous” and suggesting people may not appreciate the consequences of their vote.

Carney was the governor of the Bank of England in 2016 when Britain voted to leave the European Union and led the central bank as the UK navigated the complex process of exiting the bloc.

He said Britons were not informed about the full consequences of their vote.

“I saw firsthand what happened in the United Kingdom when the view was, vote for this, it’ll be soft, and then we’ll negotiate,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa.

“They’re still, ten years later, trying to undo what people didn’t think they were voting for, but what they ended up having.”

Separatists in Canada’s oil-rich Alberta province say they have collected the signatures of more than 300,000 supporters, enough names under Alberta law to force a referendum on leaving Canada.

But an Alberta judge shut down the process, saying the citizens’ initiative was invalid because the separatists had failed to consult with Indigenous groups whose rights could be threatened if the province separated from Canada.

Alberta’s conservative Premier Danielle Smith has called the judge’s decision “erroneous” and said she would go ahead with her own ballot question, structuring the question so that it does not violate the ruling.

In October, Smith said she plans to ask Albertans if they want her government “to commence the legal process necessary to hold a binding referendum” on independence, stressing she personally supports the province remaining in Canada.

Asked about Smith’s ballot question on Monday, Carney recalled Brexit and offered “an observation from experience.”

“In these separation issues, it is often advanced that — vote for this and it’s a free option, vote for this and we will strengthen our hand in a future negotiation. That is a very dangerous bluff,” the prime minister said.

Polls show that roughly 30 percent of Alberta’s five million people support independence, a record high figure.

The separatist camp accuses Ottawa of stifling Alberta’s oil industry with excessive federal influence, while blocking investment over what they view as unreasonable concerns about the environment.

Even if the separatists lose a prospective referendum, leaders on both sides say the process will have permanently changed Canadian politics. 

The lucrative market behind viral fake news


Public debate is increasingly disrupted by viral misinformation circulating on social media. Behind this sensationalist content regularly lie actors driven by pure profit. To truly understand the spread of online misinformation, author and academic Carlos Diaz Ruiz suggests it must be analysed as the outcome of a market system in its own right.


Issued on: 02/06/2026 -
By:  The FRANCE 24 Observers/
Aurélia ABDELBOST

Behind viral misinformation content regularly lie actors driven by pure profit.

 © Observers



In December 2025, French President Emmanuel Macron revealed that an African head of state had contacted him, believing a coup d'état was under way in France. The confusion was caused by an AI-generated video posted on Facebook by a Burkinabe teen.

The creator of the video, which garnered more than ten million views, told French daily Le Monde that his sole motivation was to make money.

More recently, in late April, CBC News and Radio-Canada revealed that a network of disinformation YouTube channels campaigning for Alberta's independence was actually being run by creators based in the Netherlands.

To produce their sensationalist and misleading videos, the creators hired actors and used AI, all while keeping their own faces entirely off-camera. The network amassed 40 million views. Once again, their sole motivation appeared to be profit, driven by YouTube monetisation.

The market of misinformation

The proliferation of fake news on social media is driven by more than just actors with geopolitical or ideological agendas – sometimes, the motives are purely financial. Carlos Diaz Ruiz, author of “Market-Oriented Disinformation Research”, argues that to better combat fake news, we must view this ecosystem as a market "rather than an occasional aberration caused by some evil person out there".

“If we think about it as a system that makes money for a lot of actors, then it becomes much easier to fix.”

‘A system that rewards attention’

The social media ecosystem is designed in a way that pressures influencers to produce increasingly extreme content just to maintain their viewership – and their income – week after week.

“When we pay creators to come up with highly engaging content, we create a system that rewards attention,” Diaz Ruiz says. “And we know that this attention is driven either by sensational content, but also by anxiety and fear.”

In fact, publishing sensationalist or anxiety-inducing misinformation is actively rewarded by algorithms, according to a recent report by the SIMODS research project, which tracks online disinformation across major platforms.

For instance, the study estimates that a YouTube account that frequently posts false or misleading content receives 11 times more engagement than a credible source with the same subscriber count. On X, engagement is roughly ten times higher, and on Facebook, nine times higher. While Instagram and TikTok perform slightly better – with engagement multipliers of four and two, respectively – LinkedIn is the only platform that appears to avoid the trap.

Opaque distribution of advertisements

For influencers, every view, click, and interaction translates into more revenue from advertisers. “Most influencers don't make a lot of money, but a few influencers make a lot of money from that,” Diaz Ruiz says.

This attention economy is fueled by advertising, which drives platform profits.

“We call them ‘big tech’ because we view them as technology firms, a neutral term,” Diaz Ruiz says. “But if you actually study how they make money, they are advertising firms. They make money from advertising, and from brands, companies and people who use their services.”

On major platforms, advertisements are distributed automatically through ad networks such as Meta Ads, which serve as intermediaries.

Algorithms deliver these ads to user accounts based on targeting criteria such as location or age group. As a result, a legitimate brand's advertisement can end up on an account that matches the advertiser's target demographics but happens to spread misinformation. Diaz Ruiz says:


“You give money for social media advertising, and then it goes to some provocative, incendiary influencer. The influencer says, ‘I'm just putting content – free speech.’ The platform says, ‘I'm just a platform’, and the advertiser says, ‘I don't know where my money goes’. So no one is responsible in the end.”
A system benefiting platforms

In some cases, advertisers themselves are violating platform policies. According to Reuters, Meta anticipated that it would bring in roughly 10% of its total annual revenue – around $16 billion – from illicit ads and scams in late 2024.

“If 10% of your income comes from scam ads – not counting fraud and not counting all the other categories that we discussed before – we are talking about a non-insignificant amount of money that platforms benefit from,” Diaz Ruiz says. “Of course, they can always say that they did something against these scams, but they did not return the money.”

How can we regulate better?

To prevent ads from legitimate companies from ending up funding disinformation accounts, Diaz Ruiz calls for better regulation of the platform advertising market:

“If marketers had a duty of due diligence over where their money is going and what exactly they are funding, then they would be more cautious. We have done that with banks, for instance.”

This refers to “Know Your Customer” (KYC) regulations, which require banks to verify their clients' identities to prevent activities such as terrorist financing and money laundering.

“The idea is that the bank, even though it’s only a bank, has the responsibility to know where the money goes, who the client is, and what the purpose of this money is. We don't have that for digital advertising in any way,” Diaz Ruiz says.

This type of regulation, for instance, would establish traceability and hold digital players accountable.

This article has been translated from the original in French.

Offshore detention hubs: Europe turns to Trump-style tactics on migration

PRESS REVIEW © FRANCE 24
06:21


Issued on: 02/06/2026 


PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, June 2: The European Union approves the creation of offshore "return hubs" to where failed asylum seekers could be sent. The British papers focus on a new trove of documents pertaining to Peter Mandelson, the former ambassador to the US. The Canadian province of Alberta will hold a referendum in October to decide on whether to vote on secession. Finally, researchers conclude that there is nothing foul about birds who masturbate.

The European Union has given its green light for the creation of detention hubs outside of Europe, to where they could send illegal migrants. Politico reports that the EU agreed on new rules to speed up and increase deportations from the bloc on Monday. These rules will be ratified in the coming weeks or months. This includes the creation of "return hubs" outside of Europe where failed asylum seekers could be sent. It is part of sweeping EU reforms to increase control over who enters the bloc and how.

The Belgian daily Le Soir evokes what it calls a compromise after multiple negotiations. It also reflects the growing importance of the right and far right in the EU Parliament. Under the agreement concluded on Monday, countries like Denmark, Austria or Germany could send illegal migrants to Rwanda, Uganda, or Uzbekistan – third countries to which they often have absolutely no connection. Spain has been a vehement opponent of this new legislation. The agreement reflects a harder line on the issue of migrants – at a time, Spanish daily El Pais reminds us, when Europe is preparing to receive a Taliban delegation to discuss future deportations to Afghanistan. The Washington Post sees the EU as moving to "deploy some of the same clenched fist tactics as the Trump administration": speeding up deportation, increasing detention times and tightening border controls.

EU agrees deal for deporting migrants to third-country 'return hubs'

The European Union on Monday agreed a deal to allow countries to send migrants ordered to leave the bloc to third-country "return hubs". The legislation, which still requires formal approval by EU governments and the European Parliament, has drawn criticism from human rights groups.


Issued on: 02/06/2026 
By: FRANCE 24

Migrants board a bus to the Playa de Las Americas police station and then to a temporary detention center following a rescue operation near Tenerife, Spain, on July 4, 2023. © Desiree Martin, AFP

European Union lawmakers and governments agreed on Monday on new rules allowing countries to deport migrants ordered to leave the bloc to centres in third countries, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from rights groups that warn it could ​enable abuses.

The deal ‌is part of a broader tightening of EU migration policy amid pressure from right-wing parties, even as irregular arrivals fell ⁠26 percent last year to their lowest level since 2021.

The legislation, which still requires formal approval by EU governments and the European Parliament, was proposed by the European Commission last year. The commission says it would streamline ‌procedures and give governments more tools to deport people while respecting fundamental rights.

Rights groups dispute that assessment.

"This Regulation is ⁠going to create a draconian detention and deportation machine," said Silvia Carta, advocacy officer at the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), a human rights organisation.

EU countries say they struggle to ensure that rejected asylum seekers and people who overstay their visas leave their territory. The commission says ​only about 20 percent of people ordered to leave currently depart.

Under the new rules, EU states would be able to ‌establish so-called return hubs outside the bloc for people whose asylum claims have been rejected or who have been ordered to leave the EU. Deportees could be sent to hubs in countries they do not have connections to.

"With the new rules, we have more control over who can come to the EU, who can stay, and who ‌needs to leave,” said European Commissioner Magnus Brunner.

Member states have not disclosed the potential host countries.

'Return hubs': EU parliament clears the way for offshore migrant detention centres

Home raids

The draft legislation extends detention periods and introduces penalties, including entry bans, fines and possible criminal sanctions for non-cooperation.

Authorities would be allowed ​to seize belongings, detain minors, collect biometric data and search homes.

The deal also allows authorities to search migrants and "relevant premises", a term that rights groups criticise as being overly broad and enabling home raids.

Human rights activists and non-governmental organisations working with asylum seekers in the EU say some ​of the practices are already occurring and have increased in recent months, pointing to a rise in deportations of recognised refugees from Germany and other states ​to Greece and other EU border countries.

There, they say, in some cases authorities carry out night-time home searches ​to detain people and transfer them to detention centres or airports for deportation, sometimes without allowing them to gather their belongings.

Minos Mouzourakis, a lawyer and advocacy officer at Greece-based non-profit Refugee Support Aegean, warned the draft legislation amounted ​to “a recipe for extremely damaging and extremely dangerous practices” in Europe.

French Greens lawmaker Mélissa Camara said: "The legalisation of return hubs outside the European Union, the green light for the detention of minors, home visits inspired by (US) ICE practices: The legal arsenal serving a xenophobic ideology is now complete."

From rekindled love story to ICE 'nightmare': France calls on US to release 85-year-old

Some EU countries have already begun exploring such arrangements.

The Netherlands is working with Denmark, Germany, Greece and Austria to set up joint return and transit hubs, while bilateral talks with Uganda on a similar ⁠arrangement have been put on hold.

The Dutch government says it wants concrete steps by year-end, as it faces what Prime Minister Rob Jetten has called an “asylum crisis”.

Dutch reception centres are overcrowded – ⁠including the main registration hub Ter ​Apel, which has begun admitting only the most vulnerable – while anti-migration protests have emerged in areas hosting emergency shelters amid capacity shortages and a slow outflow of asylum seekers.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)

Court rejects Rwanda €115mn claim against Britain over migrant deal

An international court on Monday rejected a claim by Rwanda for Britain to pay more than £100 million (€115million) it said London still owed from a scrapped deal to deport migrants.


Issued on: 01/06/2026 - RFI

This photo provided by the Prefecture Maritime du Nord et de la Manche shows migrants continuing their journey to Britain off northern France coast, Tuesday, April 23, 2024. AP

Judges from the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague ruled that Britain was not liable for two years of outstanding costs from the scheme that was shelved in 2024.

In 2022, former UK prime minister Boris Johnson sealed a deal with Kigali to send to Rwanda migrants arriving in Britain via "dangerous or illegal journeys" in small boats or lorries.

Demonstrators take to the streets in protest at the UK government's controversial deal to deport migrants to Rwanda, 2022/06/13 © Getty Images

But the scheme hit legal and political obstacles from the start, with the UK Supreme Court eventually ruling it illegal.

When Keir Starmer became British prime minister in July 2024, he declared the plan "dead and buried" on his first full day in office, dismissing it as a "gimmick".

Then interior minister Yvette Cooper called it "the most shocking waste of taxpayers' money I have ever seen".

Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper delivers a speech during the Global Partnership Conference in London on May 19, 2026. AFP - JUSTIN TALLIS

During the two years before the scheme was scrapped, only four people actually went to Rwanda, all voluntarily, according to the current UK government.

According to the UK government website, about £290 million (€335 million) has already been paid to Rwanda, but Kigali argued in its pre-hearing submissions to the PCA that two annual payments of £50 million (€58 million) were still outstanding.

But the PCA, set up in 1899 to settle contractual disputes between nations, rejected by majority a £50 million (€58 million) claim for one year and unanimously rejected the same amount for the second.

The two nations are already at loggerheads after Britain slashed aid to Rwanda, accusing it of supporting M23 rebels in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

(With newswires)

Monoskop.org

https://monoskop.org/images/9/95/Hardt_Michael_Negri_Antonio_Empire.pdf

EMPIRE - Monoskop 

4.3 The Multitude against Empire. 393. Notes. 415. Index. 473. Page 11. PREFACE. Empire is materializing before our very eyes. Over the past several decades, as ...

Rebels-library.org

http://rebels-library.org/files/multitude.pdf

MULTITUDE - Rebel Studies Library 

Page 1. MULTITUDE. WAR AND DEMOCRACY. IN THE AGE OF EMPIRE. MICHAEL HARDT ... Empire calls on war for its legitimation, the multitude calls on democracy as its ...

Newleftreview.org

https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii120/articles/empire-twenty-years-on.pdf

EMPIRE, TWENTY YEARS ON | New Left Review 

Just as today's. Empire was formed in response to the insurgencies of the multitudes from below, so too, potentially, it could fall to them, as long as those.

 

Canada’s Trans Mountain Pipeline Moves Toward Another Capacity Increase

By Irina Slav - May 29, 2026

Trans Mountain Corp. will hold another open season for the expanded pipeline that takes crude from Alberta to the western Canadian coast, Bloomberg has reported, seeking takers for 72,000 barrels daily in additional capacity.

The company operating the pipeline will boost its capacity by another 90,000 barrels daily soon by using drag reduction agents, its chief executive Mark Maki said, as quoted by the publication. The first open season for the pipeline is taking place right now. It launched in early April, and Maki said it would boost the portion of capacity under long-term contracts to 90% from 80% previously. Earlier, plans were to have the additional boost of capacity via chemical agents by the start of next year.

Reports about a further boost to the pipeline’s capacity first emerged last year, also citing CEO Maki, who said at the time Trans Mountain Corp. planned to use chemicals to make it possible to send more oil via the pipes to British Columbia.

That may not be the end of capacity expansion at TMX, however, with Maki also saying last year that by 2029, the pipeline could reach a total capacity of 1.2 million barrels daily. The Trans Mountain pipeline finally completed its expansion—after years of delays and substantial cost overruns—and tripled the capacity of the original pipeline to 890,000 bpd from 300,000 bpd to carry crude from Alberta’s oil sands to British Columbia’s coast.

In March this year, Maki was quoted as saying that he expected Trans Mountain Corp. to secure full capacity amid the supply crunch caused by the war in the Middle East. There are also plans for a further capacity increase of 210,000 barrels daily as part of a larger Mainline Optimization Project, to be completed by the end of 2028. The previous timetable for that project’s completion featured 2030 or 2031 as the deadline.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

No Pathways, no pipeline: How the massive carbon storage project would work, if built

By

The Canadian Press

Opens in new window

Published: May 25, 2026 

The Cenovus Christina Lake oilsands facility steam-assisted gravity drainage pad southeast of Fort McMurray, Alta., is shown on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Amber Bracken

CALGARY — There’s no pipeline without Pathways and no Pathways without a pipeline.

That was the quid pro quo spelled out in a sweeping energy accord signed between Alberta and Ottawa in November.

Alberta is spearheading early planning and regulatory work on a potential new one-million-barrel-a-day pipeline to the West Coast that would provide an outlet for increased oilsands production and boost exports to Asia. But the “grand bargain” with Ottawa to help clear the way for the pipeline calls for a meaningful offset to the carbon emissions it would enable.

Enter Pathways: a multibillion-dollar plan to transport and store 16 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from the oilsands by 2035. The project has been in the works for around four years, but the companies proposing it, the province and federal government have yet to figure out how they’ll share the costs and the risks. The Alberta-Ottawa agreement set an April 1 deadline to reach a three-way deal, but the matter remains unresolved.

The Pathways project is being proposed by the Oil Sands Alliance (formerly the Pathways Alliance), which is made up of five major oilsands players: Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Cenovus Energy Inc., Imperial Oil Ltd., Suncor Energy Inc. and ConocoPhillips Canada.

Carbon capture and storage is “probably the most cost-effective pathway for most industrial decarbonization in Alberta,” said Brendan Frank, vice-president of policy at Clean Prosperity, a climate policy group.

Here is a rundown on the technical and economic aspects of Pathways:

Capture

Pathways members would be responsible for installing carbon capture equipment at their own oilsands sites. Flue gases would be collected from boilers, steam generators and other combustion equipment. A chemical process would separate out the carbon dioxide, which would then be compressed into a liquid. Costs would vary site by site due to the transport distance to the storage hub and how emissions intensive each operation is, Frank said.

Transport

A project overview posted by the Oil Sands Alliance in March says it’s proposing to build a more than 650-kilometre pipeline network to bring CO2 from as far north as the Fort McMurray, Alta., area south to a storage hub in the Cold Lake, Alta., region. It does not account for the investments needed in the individual oilsands plants to capture emissions. The plan includes 16 small lateral segments connecting to 13 oilsands sites, both mines and steam-driven operations. The laterals would feed liquefied CO2 into a wider transportation artery, which would then connect with a distribution line running to the storage hub.

Storage

At the storage hub, the gas would be injected deep underground in the Basal Cambrian Sandstone formation, which sits one to two kilometres below the surface. The spongelike sandstone has spaces that can be filled with CO2. Above that formation is thick, non-porous rock salt that can act as a barrier to keep the carbon dioxide in the ground.

Costs

The overview did not include an updated cost estimate, but in 2022 the alliance said the first phase would include $16.5 billion in investment by 2030.

The project has been in limbo for years as the companies, Ottawa and Alberta try to reach an agreement on how the costs should be shared.

“We can pay for some of Pathways,” Cenovus CEO Jon McKenzie said in an interview in April. “We can’t pay for the entire burden.”

The federal government already offers an investment tax credit for carbon capture projects, which industry players have said is helpful but does not go far enough to defray the cost. Alberta has its own grant program that covers 12 per cent of eligible capital costs.

In Canada, the government’s financial support for carbon capture has been on the capital cost side, helping projects get up and running. In the U.S., by contrast, companies shoulder the upfront construction costs and get generous tax credits for ongoing operations.

Where the carbon price comes in

The capital cost from government help is welcome, said Chloe McElhone, research manager at Clean Prosperity. But at the scale of Pathways, certainty is needed decades into the future.

“You need to be complimented with the ongoing operational support, and that’s what carbon markets are providing.”

The Alberta and federal governments agreed earlier this month to target an effective carbon price — the value carbon credits and offsets go for on the market — of $130 a tonne by 2040. Several environmental groups said that’s too long a horizon.

“This price schedule is not strong enough to spur the necessary near-term private investment to reinvigorate the Pathways carbon capture project,” said Chris Severson-Baker, executive director of the Pembina Institute clean-energy think-tank.

Climate advocates did, however, welcome the inclusion of carbon contracts for difference in the federal-provincial “implementation agreement.” Those act as an insurance policy of sorts, giving clean energy investors certainty in the carbon pricing regime in the years ahead. Should each level of government fail to maintain their commitments or repeal their respective climate policies, each would “assume sole liability” for the contracts.

Analysis from Clean Prosperity found carbon prices between $130 and $150 should be enough to make some, if not all, of Pathways viable, said Frank.

“I’d say the implementation agreement represents material progress toward making the Pathways project economic,” he said.

“It offers a lot more certainty than market actors had previously.”

---

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2026.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CCS

The world wants Canada’s helium, but it’s being held back

By

Anam Khan

Opens in new window

Published: May 12, 2026 

Helium Trailers Loading at Thor Heliums Plant in Knappen Alberta. (Credit: Helium Developers Association Of Canada)

Saskatchewan’s helium industry has a chance to significantly benefit from the war in Iran, but federal policies are holding it back, industry leaders say.

The war disrupted global helium supply chains tied to Qatar, which accounts for roughly a third of global production.

Although Canada boasts the world’s fifth-largest helium reserves, industry leaders argue the country isn’t treating the resource like the critical mineral it claims it is.

“There’s a contradiction there. Absolutely there is,” says Richard Dunn, the executive director of the Helium Developers Association of Canada, which advocates for secure supply chains in the country.

The Battle Creek facility, located near Consul in southwest Saskatchewan, is North American Helium Inc.'s flagship operation and Canada's largest helium purification plant. (Photo Credit: North American Helium)

A critical mineral without full policy support

Helium use goes beyond party balloons. It is essential for semiconductor manufacturing, MRI machines, aerospace technology and defence systems because of its unique cooling and non-reactive properties.

• Why Canada’s health-care system is eyeing the global helium shortage closely

Dunn says helium remains excluded from several federal incentives available to other critical mineral sectors. Without access to those programs, companies struggle.

“It’s very difficult for helium to compete for the investment, for the capital required to advance in the exploration and development opportunities.,” says Dunn.

For Saskatchewan, this is particularly important because the province has built its helium industry around dedicated helium wells. Companies drill specifically for helium found in nitrogen-rich gas reservoirs, distinguishing it from other major global producers that extract helium primarily as a byproduct of natural gas production.

Saskatchewan pushes Ottawa for tax changes

Last month, Saskatchewan’s energy minister Chris Beaudry led efforts in Ottawa to push for federal policy changes to support the province’s growing helium industry.

“There are 34 critical minerals, 33 of them have standard tax treatment, and we’re just asking for helium to have the same standard tax treatment that all other critical minerals have,” Beaudry said.

Global supply shocks drive interest in Canada

The push for policy changes comes as global helium markets face growing uncertainty.

The recent attack on Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s largest LNG export facility, which produces roughly a third of the world’s helium, is expected to drop helium output by 14 per cent.

With Russia imposing export controls on helium until next year, Dunn says it’s increasing global interest in Canadian production.

“We’re seeing more and more interest,” Dunn says, pointing to inquiries from countries including Japan and South Korea looking for secure helium supply.

Canada still relies on U.S. processing

But even as demand grows, Canada still does not have a commercial-scale helium liquefaction facility.

“All the helium that Canada produces is sent to the states for liquefaction,” Dunn said. “There’s a security supply issue that’s created.”

“Then there’s an uplift in price, in value,” he says.

Spot prices for helium have soared since the beginning of the war.

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Energy and Resources says that comes with risks.

“Being reliant on the U.S.-based liquefaction infrastructure increases costs, exposes the sector to trade-related risks, and reduces supply chain control,” the ministry said in a statement to BNN Bloomberg.

Saskatchewan’s growth ambition

Saskatchewan is Canada’s leading helium producer with reserves mostly located in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin.

The province released a Helium Action Plan in 2021 aimed at scaling production and eventually building a domestic liquefaction facility.

It says it accounts for nearly three per cent of global supply and has set a target of reaching 10 per cent by 2030 which would generate $500 million annually from helium exports.

Beaudry said changes to federal tax treatment could accelerate that growth.

“That small change is going to be massive to industry,” he said. “That’s going to unlock a lot of opportunity for us.”

To encourage similar growth, Alberta established a 4.25 per cent royalty rate in 2020 to attract potential developers in its growing industry.

Ottawa says policy falls under finance

In a statement to BNN Bloomberg, Natural Resources Canada said helium is recognized as a critical mineral because of its importance to sectors including healthcare, semiconductors, aerospace and defence.

The department described helium as “a strategic resource over the long term” with growing global demand tied to advanced technologies and critical supply chains.

But Natural Resources Canada says “eligibility for specific tax measures is determined through Canada’s overall tax policy framework.”

Dunn says he’s hopeful for changes even though no new measures were included in the federal government’s latest fiscal update. He believes momentum is building as Canada looks to strengthen domestic critical mineral supply chains.

“When a third of the world’s helium is locked up in the Strait of Hormuz right now and can’t be moved, Canada has a great opportunity,” says Dunn. “Saskatchewan has a greater opportunity.”

Anam Khan

Opens in new window

Journalist, BNNBloomberg.ca