Danielle Smith has set out her red lines in a list given to Mark Carney
The province that produces the bulk of Canada’s oil exports to the US is not about to slap an export tax on it as leverage with the US in the burgeoning trade war.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has ruled out the measure that has been suggested as a robust response to tariffs on many of Canada’s major exports. She has also said she will not accept any restriction of the province’s oil and gas to the United States.
President Trump’s new tariffs are due to start on April 2 with oil and gas facing a 10% tariff and Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem warned that lower demand, weaker economic growth, and higher inflation will result.
“Canadian businesses and households are doing their best to navigate the unpredictability of US policy, and that uncertainty is affecting our economy,” he said at a press conference in Calgary Thursday.
Smith has been critical of the Liberal government in Ottawa, but said she met with new prime minister Mark Carney “at his request” and “had a very frank discussion in which I made it clear that Albertans will no longer tolerate the way we've been treated by the federal Liberals over the past 10 years.”
The premier presented a list of demands including returning oversight of the industrial carbon tax to the provinces and eliminating the oil and gas emissions cap. She has given the prime minister six months to respond, warning that there could otherwise be a “national unity crisis.”
And she stated that Alberta “is no longer agreeable to subsidizing other large provinces who are fully capable of funding themselves.”
With the likelihood of a federal election being called within days, Carney is keen to present a united front amid growing concerns about the trade war with the US and how it will impact the Canadian economy.
Speaking after the meeting with Premier Smith he said that Canada needs to build large scale energy projects and to search for “new customers” in Europe and elsewhere that “creates a whole new set of opportunities for Albertans.” Europe was Carney’s first international destination following his appointment.
