“There is so much money available in strategic metals sectors in North America today. I think we can work without the Chinese,” the minister replied on Friday on the sidelines of an announcement on the electrification of transport in Laval.

In November, the federal government said that Chinese interests would only allow Chinese interests to acquire a company in a strategic Canadian mining sector “on an exceptional basis”. The government had also asked three Chinese companies to hand over their assets on national security grounds.

By shutting out Chinese investment, Ottawa risks hurting funding for Canada’s mining sector, believes Barrick Gold’s President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Bristow, who gave a series of interviews to English-language media this week. “It’s impossible to exclude the Chinese from the mining and metallurgical industries,” Bristow said globe and mail. The world is integrated and politicians try to divide it. »

The comments come at a time of strained diplomatic relations between China and Canada. Whether it’s about the imprisonment of the two Michaels, the attempts of Chinese influence during the last federal election campaign, the origin of donations to the Trudeau Foundation or the discovery of an alleged Chinese spy at Hydro-Québec, the headlines conjure up the tense diplomatic climate up its effects multiply.

In this context, the Quebec government, which grants mineral rights on its territory, is not very keen on Chinese investment in strategic metals. “Today we don’t want it geopolitically and then we don’t need it financially,” Minister Fitzgibbon said.

He nuances that this exclusion isn’t necessarily eternal because “things can change.”

Chinese companies still hold mining claims. The purchase of these mining-exploration titles came ahead of the cooling of Sino-Canada relations, the minister said.

However, Quebec can still impose its conditions when steps have been taken to start a project. “If ever the mining project sees the light of day because the resource is there and of good quality, they have to come to us. Today someone comes to us, a Chinese for a claim that they have, probably we would say “no”. If we said yes, there were important conditions.

“I am satisfied that there will be no problems with Chinese detentions in the near future,” he adds.