Canada has spent much of the past decade talking about the industries of the future: artificial intelligence, electrification, data
centres, and advanced manufacturing. But there is an interesting irony in all of this. Many of the industries of the future depend on one of Canada’s oldest strengths: natural resources.

AI may run on chips, but data centres require enormous amounts of electricity, copper, steel and other materials. Electric vehicles require significantly more minerals than traditional vehicles. New electricity grids need copper and aluminum. The digital economy may look weightless, but the infrastructure supporting it certainly isn’t.

That puts Canada in an enviable position. Look at our largest exports and the picture becomes pretty clear: energy, metals, minerals, lumber, and agricultural products remain enormously important to our economy. At a time when the world increasingly needs energy and raw materials, Canada already has them.

Source: CAPP, Statistics Canada, Canadian International Merchandise Trade Web Application. Data as of July 2025

More importantly, there are signs that things may finally be starting to move. Cenovus just announced its $5.7 billion acquisition of Athabasca Oil, following its acquisition of MEG Energy. Shell recently completed its acquisition of ARC Resources, while the proposed Anglo American–Teck combination is largely about securing long-term exposure to copper. At the same time, Ottawa has begun identifying projects of national importance and accelerating their development. Last week, the proposed West Coast oil pipeline, capable of moving roughly one million barrels a day to global markets, was formally designated a project of national interest.

For investors, these may be early signs of a larger Canadian resource and infrastructure investment cycle. There is an interesting historical precedent. The technology boom of the late 1990s was followed by one of the strongest commodity cycles in decades, with energy, metals and resource companies becoming market leaders through much of the 2000s. Today, we are once again in the middle of an extraordinary technology investment cycle. History doesn’t have to repeat itself, but if commodities are entering another sustained period of investment, Canada is unusually well positioned.

The beneficiaries could extend beyond commodity producers to pipelines, utilities, engineering companies, equipment suppliers, and railways. And if these projects actually come to fruition (still a big if in Canada), the resulting investment and export growth could also provide a meaningful tailwind for the Canadian dollar.

Canada doesn’t need to dominate every technology of the future. We already produce many of the things required to build it.

We just need to get the shovel in the ground.

I have also included a piece from our CIBC Economics Team entitled “When polls can mislead”.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call at any time.

Have a great weekend.

Milan