Richard Hiller has a bold vision: to pave the path for globally competitive critical minerals supply chains across Northern and Western Canada over three years.
With 15 years in public service, he understands both the importance of supply chains and the obstacles facing them; recent trade disputes have exposed how fragile these supply chains are. “The U.S., Canada and Europe are racing to secure alternative supplies [and] refining and processing capacity through public and private investment,” Hiller said. “Northern and Western Canada have the resources and expertise, but if we cannot get our act together soon, they are not going to wait for us, and we will not be part of the picture.”
While the territories and B.C. have upstream activity, Hiller noted that they are operating on an “archaic rip and ship model,” where raw materials are sent to China for processing as there is insufficient local infrastructure. To capture more midstream value, he explained, the region must coordinate around shared strengths, such as Alberta and Saskatchewan’s infrastructure, industrial land and skilled workforce.
Hiller realized this need for regional collaboration while he was executive director of energy transition with the Government of Alberta. There, he led the implementation of Alberta’s 2021 Minerals Strategy and Action Plan, and helped lay the groundwork for a memorandum of understanding on the development of a Western Canadian Critical Minerals Strategy signed by western provinces and the territories in January 2026. In April, he joined the Energy Futures Lab to lead the Future Materials Alliance (FMA), which seeks to advance inter-provincial collaboration through long-term value chain development beyond political cycles.
The FMA recognizes that Western and Northern Canada have been slower to react to the opportunities presented by the shift in thinking about critical minerals supply chains compared to provinces like Ontario and Quebec. It aims to align industry, Indigenous partners, governments, communities and researchers around developing sustainable critical minerals supply chains in the region tied to national and global markets.
Hiller’s approach to this mission involves engaging stakeholders and rightsholders through workshops in strategic regions to understand local needs and identify opportunities.
In 2025, the FMA led a workshop series in Red Deer, Alberta, to discuss establishing a critical minerals processing hub in the Central Alberta Corridor—a region with significant competitive advantages.
“It allowed us to identify areas we can address to help unlock the sector,” he said. “For instance, a centralized refinery to process the region’s growing lithium brine projects could unlock economies of scale. Some sites in [Alberta’s Industrial] Heartland have congestion or don’t have ready rail access, so roads may need to be upgraded to accommodate increased traffic.”
He acknowledged that building consensus is no simple feat: “It’s messy, it’s complicated, sometimes it seems like it’s impossible.”
However, Hiller has experience in implementing complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives: in previous roles, he helped lead the development of Alberta’s Hydrogen Roadmap and Natural Gas Vision and Strategy.
“I bring the same approach to the FMA,” he explained. “We are identifying regional workforce, education and infrastructure needs, identifying how companies operating in the region can work together, and connecting the dots for a broader plan.”
According to Hiller, the FMA aims to build the space that will help accelerate minerals projects and reduce costs by identifying opportunities for project proponents to collaborate on key infrastructure like roads, water lines and waste disposal facilities.
He hopes the FMA becomes a resource for global investors. “They’re a little scared of big infrastructure projects in Canada,” he said. “We are doing the groundwork to de-risk at the community level, and that will help de-risk Northern and Western Canada.”
