The money comes from Ottawa's First and Last Mile Fund and targets a lithium deposit Ottawa calls one of the world's largest.
Ottawa is paying to improve the road to one of Canada's biggest lithium deposits. On October 28, 2026, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson announced more than $1.2 million from Natural Resources Canada's First and Last Mile Fund to upgrade access to the Shaakichiuwaanaan mining project in the Eeyou Istchee Baie-James region of northern Quebec (Natural Resources Canada). Lithium is a key ingredient in EV batteries, but this is a road project, not a mine or a battery plant.
A road. According to NRCan's release, the funding will rehabilitate and upgrade roughly 20 kilometres of existing access road connecting the Trans-Taiga road to the Shaakichiuwaanaan site. NRCan says the work will improve road safety and give dependable year-round access for people and equipment travelling between the highway, the project camp and the mineral site.
NRCan: over $1.2 million to upgrade about 20 km of road to the Shaakichiuwaanaan site.
NRCan says the site holds a significant deposit of lithium, caesium and tantalum, which it calls essential to batteries, energy storage systems, electric vehicles and advanced manufacturing. The release doesn't give a timeline for a mine, production volumes or where the lithium would be processed or sold.
Minister Hodgson said in the release that roads are "what turns mineral deposits from potential into real projects." PMET Resources CEO Ken Brinsden said infrastructure "is an important part of bringing a new mine into production."
NRCan says the fund has $1.5 billion in federal funding, announced in Budget 2025, to build infrastructure for new mines and mining regions. It also says most critical-mineral deposits in Canada are on Indigenous territories, and the fund includes money for Indigenous leadership and participation in the mining value chain.
Nothing changes for EV prices or rebates. It's a small, early step in Canada's battery-minerals supply chain. For what does affect buyers right now, see the EV rebates guide and our EVAP 2027 explainer.
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