Q&A: PDAC’s Rees on how event looks forward

The Northern Miner Podcast host Adrian Pocobelli sat down with Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) President Karen Rees to discuss her role with the conference, this year’s highlights and what to expect in Toronto.

Adrian Pocobelli: I’m very pleased to welcome Karen Rees, president of the PDAC on to The Northern Miner podcast.

Karen Rees: Thank you very much for having me.

AP: We have a very big conference coming up in Canada in March, the PDAC conference. How are you feeling about it before showtime?

KR: Excited. Being at some of the conferences this year, it’s very full of optimism, and I look forward to watching that continue to play out through our convention in March.

AP: Indeed, when one sees one’s stock portfolio rising, it tends to help the animal spirits, so to speak. Tell us a bit about yourself. How did you become president of the PDAC?

KR: I started in mineral exploration in the late 80s. I worked for a couple of majors, but primarily in the junior exploration space and entirely in Canada. I worked as a field geologist, got through into management in a junior which means you’re wearing a lot of different hats. And about 14 years ago, I felt like it was a good time to start giving back to the community.

I was encouraged to become a volunteer for PDAC in our Human Resource Development Committee. Working with our Student & Early Career Program, I was also encouraged to put my name in for the board. I was elected by the members in 2018. I was further encouraged to put my name in for the executive committee that led to the track to become president, and that we followed through in March of 2025.

AP: So how is this year different from other years? Natural resources have been bubbling to the top of the news over the last few years, but especially in the last year, it’s hit a whole new level of attention. How might things be different at PDAC this year?

KR: I think you bring up a good point. I’ve been going since the late 90s, and I feel like every year is different. Last year there were higher commodity prices, and as of a year ago, a very strong focus, obviously with critical minerals, and talking about Canada, what we can do.

But for the convention itself, it’s the largest show that we’ve ever had in that we are expanding to the full capacity of the space in both the North and the South Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Center (MTCC). That includes a total of 1,300 booth spaces in addition to the programming that we have in the meeting rooms.

AP: Incredible! Because it’s already a gigantic conference. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of maybe 25,000 people show up to this thing. What else you can tell us?

KR: We have 100 hours of programming delivered by 700 speakers in our meeting event space. Things that will be familiar to people are the Capital Markets Program, Sustainability Program, the keynote speakers, new innovations, Master Class series, Indigenous programming, Student & Early Career Program, the entire Technical Program and out on the show floor, seeing those 1,300 exhibitors.

We’ve added some more casual events, Coffee Connections, a few of our evening events that are hosted at the Royal York Hotel, where people can get out of their business attire, relax and connect on a human level, because I believe good business relationships are made by good human connections.

AP: Oftentimes PDAC has certain advocacy goals that they are trying to accomplish, not just during the conference, but throughout the entire year. In 2026, does PDAC have a message for government that they want to convey?

KR: We certainly do. We’re very encouraged by the investment flowing into Canada’s mineral sector, but we want to continue to attract investment at current levels, and that depends on policy certainty, fiscal competitiveness, and long-term investor confidence. With the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (METC), PDAC talks about that every year. We were fortunate to have a long-term renewal, and then with a change of government, we went back to a one-year and we’re presently in a two-year renewal. It’s now due to expire in March 2027.

We’d like to advocate for fiscal incentives like the METC, and that the new critical minerals exploration tax credit be put into a more permanent fiscal set of tools so that investors know that the money they’re putting into companies can allow them to carry out multi-year exploration programs. Systematic exploration leads to the discoveries that are an integral part of the pipeline for our production profile in Canada.

AP: The market likes certainty, as they say. How should people conceptualize this conference’s layout in their mind?

KR: A little word of advice, along with conceptualizing the space, is wear comfortable shoes. It’s very easy, over the course of one convention day, to get in the 25,000 to 30,000 steps. In the MTCC, located on Front Street, the North Building has an overhead walkway. We will have our Trade Show North up there and our Northern Lights Learning Hub.

There is information available on our website for that and you can add sessions of interest to your personal calendar.

AP: There’s also going to be students. What can they expect?

KR: We expanded the Student & Early Career Program over the last number of years, and it’s also more than, say, geoscience and mining students.

We have 20-minute mentoring that students and early career can sign up for. We have student industry mixer, and that’s a room full of 1,000 people, students and companies who want to connect with the next talent of our industry. We convene a panel of experts in various fields, and it’s a great Q&A session, so that people coming into our industry are exposed to the disciplines that you can work with.

AP: What kind of representation from government are you expecting to have?

KR: I’ve run into [government] folks in the last six months who said they’re coming to our convention because they wouldn’t miss it. This is a great time for our government representatives to be out with the minerals industry folks.

AP: If you’re newer and you haven’t heard of the PDAC, I remember Stephen Harper actually appeared. It’s a pretty important event in the mining calendar globally, but especially in Canada. Is there anything else we should discuss here about the conference?

KR: I’ll just leave you with the message that it’s going to be a great event. There’s a platform there for retail investors looking for some interesting things to put their money into. It’s a great learning event for people who aren’t in our business, but there’s so much programming that is going to be relevant to many folks, given how important the minerals industry is to our everyday lives.

AP: I’m excited to go back. We will be back this year with a podcast booth and also with some video. Thanks for coming on the program, Karen.

KR: Thank you very much. Adrian.