Canadian Election 2015: What Does a Liberal Majority Mean for Mining?

On Monday night, Canada’s Liberal Party surged to a majority government win, ousting the current Conservative government.
Overall, the Liberal Party won 184 seats, followed by the Conservative Party with 99, the New Democratic Party (NDP) with 44, the Bloc Quebecois with 10 seats and the Green party with one. As Global News reported, 67.62 percent of eligible Canadians voted, resulting in the highest voter turnout since 1993.
Stephen Harper has announced that he will step down as leader of the Conservative Party.
So what does a Liberal win mean for mining and resources? Ahead of the election, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) published a Q&A with representatives from each of the main political parties on their views and policies on the mining industry in Canada.

Geoff Regan, member of parliament for Halifax West, told PDAC that the Liberal Party sees mining as “a vital creator of jobs and wealth in rural, remote and urban Canada,” agreeing that “[t]he industry needs access to capital.” He also answered questions about facilitating opportunities for Aboriginal people in the minerals sector and about measures that would support capital raising in the mineral exploration sector.
“The federal government needs to take into account the unique infrastructure needs of some sectors and recognize it is tough for Canadian businesses to compete for new mining investment when we are up against much smaller countries with shorter supply chains,” he stated.
Also worth reading is the Northern Miner’s (subscription) Q&A on mining in Canada with most of the country’s major political parties, published at the end of September.
Along with the NDP and the Green Party, the Liberal Party discusses the permitting process for mines in Canada, the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit and the significance of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in the case of Tsilhqot’in Nation vs. British Columbia in June 2014.
The Canadian dollar fell 0.2 percent following results of last night’s election, Bloomberg reported. “Investors are somewhat cautious about the change in government,” Bipan Rai, director of foreign exchange strategy at CIBC World Markets, told the publication. “It might be due to some uncertainty about how the fiscal picture is going to look.”
 
Securities Disclosure: I, Teresa Matich, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.