Canada has the critical minerals Donald Trump wants. So what should we do with them?

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“You cannot use a tariff war, a tariff issue with the United States of America to override the rights of the First Nations people that live in these lands,” he said.

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The urgency surrounding natural resource development also stems from Trump’s musings about annexing Canada and making it the 51st state, both before and after his January inauguration.

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Trump’s comments were broadly downplayed as a joke at first. But in comments captured by a hot microphone and widely reported by Canadian media, former prime minister Justin Trudeau told a crowd of business leaders in early February that Trump’s threats are real and motivated by a desire to absorb our resources.

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Carney echoed Trudeau’s concerns after he won the Liberal leadership race last month, saying that Americans “want our resources, our water, our land, our country.”

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Trump’s rhetoric seemed to cool off after an initial call with the newly sworn-in prime minister last month, but he and his White House brought back the notion of a 51st state this week.

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Steyn, the University of Calgary professor, agreed that Trump’s comments are partly motivated by the United States’ need to transform its energy and digital sectors, as well as boost national security by accessing more critical minerals.

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“I think we are being put under economic pressure as a way to soften us up for a kind of reciprocal mineral deal,” she said, adding that Trump’s advisers would “certainly” have knowledge of the Ring of Fire deposits.

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Trump signed an executive order this week to start an investigation into all U.S. critical minerals imports, which could set the stage for new tariffs and put pressure on China, which restricted its exports of rare earth minerals in response to American tariffs.

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He had previously signed another order to increase the production of domestic critical minerals, and the U.S. administration is currently negotiating critical minerals deals with Ukraine and the Democratic Republic of Congo — both war-torn countries.

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The United States is one of the largest importers of gallium, niobium, aluminum, palladium, platinum and dozens of other minerals the country deems crucial to its economic development and industries such as renewable energy, electronics and military technology.

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Canada, on the other hand, is a mining country with a rich supply of minerals buried in the ground — though the Ring of Fire, in particular, remains in development with few active mines and years-long timelines for new projects. Canadian companies also have mining operations elsewhere in the world.

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The fact that Trump has imposed lower tariffs on energy materials from Canada, such as uranium and potash, shows he knows the importance of Canadian minerals, Steyn said.

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“Canada is the storehouse of every one of the critical minerals that American industry needs. Every one of them. And yet, we don’t ever hear about that,” said Michigan-based Jack Lifton, co-chair of the Critical Mineral Institute, a global organization.

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“I don’t know what Washington thinks about this, but I don’t think they realize that Canada is the solution to the problem, not the problem,” he added.

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China has so far been the largest supplier and exporter of critical mineral resources in the world. Like Americans, Europeans are trying to find alternative sources for their needs and Canada has the potential to fill that gap, said Ian London, executive director at Canadian Critical Minerals and Materials Alliance.

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London argued Canada’s mining sector should break away from selling raw minerals and instead use them to build an advanced domestic manufacturing industry.

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“My counterargument is I want to re-industrialize Canada’s value chains and industrial and export economic base,” he said. “Why would we just take it out of the ground and give it to others who would then, you know, add (value) there, but we buy back the finished product? (It) makes no sense.”