Deputy Prime Minister co-chairs first meeting of Canada-U.S. Energy Transformation Task Force
May 8, 2023
From the Department of Finance Canada
Recently, at the White House, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, co-chaired a productive first meeting of the joint Canada-U.S. Energy Transformation Task Force, together with the U.S. Special Presidential Coordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security, Amos J. Hochstein. The Task Force was first announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden in Ottawa on March 24, 2023.
The Energy Transformation Task Force builds on the close partnership between Canada and the United States, and seeks to ensure that investments in our clean economies create opportunities for workers and businesses on both sides of the border, while strengthening and securing our critical supply chains and advancing energy security.
Deputy Prime Minister Delivers Canada’s Plan for a Clean Energy Economy
The Deputy Prime Minister spoke about Canada’s plan to build our clean economy, create good middle class jobs, and advance projects to supply the critical goods and resources that our allies need. She commended the United States for its support of Ukraine as it defends its sovereignty and democracy, and underlined the need to invest in Ukraine’s reconstruction efforts.
She highlighted that Canada and the United States are natural partners in developing a reliable supply of the critical minerals that are essential to producing electric vehicle batteries, green steel and aluminum, and other technologies and materials the world needs, given Canada’s abundant critical minerals and the deep mining and processing expertise of Canadian workers. We will continue our work to secure the critical minerals and metals needed for a clean energy future in Canada, the United States, and with partners around the world.
The Deputy Prime Minister noted that Canada is a key partner for the United States in developing clean energy technologies, including nuclear, and strengthening North America’s clean power grid, and emphasized the need to preserve the competitiveness of cross-border supply chains, including for steel and aluminum.
The Deputy Prime Minister underscored the importance of Canadian and American clean economy investments being complementary to each other, and of working together to maximize the impact of these investments to create good-paying jobs for our workers, new opportunities for our businesses, and to make both the Canadian and American economies more secure and more resilient.
Quick Facts
- The Energy Transformation Task Force was announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden on March 24, 2023, as a one-year joint initiative to catalyze clean energy and create good jobs on both sides of our border. The Task Force will focus on securing and strengthening renewable energy and electric vehicle supply chains, critical minerals and rare earths, grid integration and resilience, advanced and conventional nuclear energy, among other areas that advance our collective energy security.
