The Minister of Mines was a Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet responsible for the mining industry in Canada.
The Department of Mines was created by the government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and assented to on 27 April 1907. The Minister of Inland Revenue was the first to be named Minister of Mines. In 1936, the mines portfolio became part of the Minister of Mines and Resources, in 1950, Minister of Mines and Technical Surveys, in 1966 the Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources, and since 1995 the Minister of Natural Resources.[1]
In 1936, the office of the Minister of Mines, along with those of the Minister of Immigration and Colonization, Minister of the Interior, and Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs, were abolished and the office of Minister of Mines and Resources was created by Statute 1 Edw. VIII, c. 33, proclaimed in force on 1 December 1936.