Photo: Courtesy of the Government of Canada
During the Minister’s visit, he is touring mining projects, met with local and territorial government leaders and attended a government retreat
YUKON – A federal minister is stopping by the Yukon for a mineral tour and retreat this week.
The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois Philippe Champagne is in the north meeting territorial leaders, touring Yukon mines, mineral projects, while discussing infrastructure development to support economic growth.
The federal minister visited Western Copper and Gold Corporation’s Casino Project, Newmont Corporation’s Coffee Gold Project, and others in the Dawson area. He mentioned in the interview with the Rush that the Casino Project has the potential to be one of North America’s most influential mining projects.
Premier Ranj Pillai says strategic federal investments are going to be essential to sustaining mineral development in the north. He added, that the Yukon is also well-positioned to support the ongoing clean energy transition through the responsible extraction of critical minerals.
Champagne will be attending the Rural/Prairie/North Minister’s retreat with cabinet colleagues such as; Dan Vandal, Minister of Northern Affairs, and Randy Boissonnault, Associate Minister of Finance of Canada.
Champagne spoke in detail about the Casino project and other topics during an interview with the Rush.
“How can we work better between municipalities, territorial government, and the federal government? Because that is an issue across Canada, but it’s a barrier for a lot of folks to move north. There’s issue around economic development. Obviously, I’m a big fan of being the Minister of Industry, saying how can we make sure that these projects I think if Casino you know, if this mine, we can get it going, that would be the largest copper mine in North America.”
He also touched on the issue of housing.
“I think fundamentally, we just need to build more. But you know, we need to build more also responsibly because people say, Yeah, sure we want more housing, but particularly in a place like the Yukon, which is pristine. You need to do that responsibly and but at the same time that you build more resilient because of climate change, but I think certainly here if we’re going to want to develop the Yukon to its full potential housing is key and is number one, you know, yes, it’s great, but it’s barely affordable.”
Give the full interview with Minister Champagne here!
