Prime Minister Mark Carney in 2025. Credit: ReutersThe Association of Mineral Exploration has released a statement urging the Liberal government to honour its Canada Strong election pledge by expanding Canadian Exploration Expense (CEE) eligibility to cover project‑advancement work. AME sent a letter to François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s minister of finance and national revenue, on July 17, 2026. In an effort to “attract, expand and de-risk investments in critical minerals exploration and extraction,” the party said it would expand eligible activities under CEE to include the costs of technical studies, such as engineering, economic and feasibility studies for critical-minerals projects. The Nov. 2025 budget broadened the credit to cover 12 additional minerals but left project-advancement eligibility unchanged. Project bottlenecksSince the launch of Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy in 2022, only one critical-mineral mine has entered commercial production.