Why Canada could not be exploited like India

Could the Hudson's Bay Company have exploited Canada's resources as extensively as the East India Company did India?

Not without a much larger population able to sustain that system; India's demographic and political setting gave the East India Company opportunities Canada did not match.

Population is the first constraint on any attempt to turn the Hudson's Bay Company into a Canadian counterpart to the East India Company. The East India Company entered regions containing very large populations and established political systems, giving it a base for revenue and administration that Canada did not offer on the same scale. The company is described as an institution that could sometimes appear the least bad option among poor alternatives, rather than as a benevolent power. The comparison therefore concerns demographic and institutional conditions more than access to natural resources alone.