Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said on Wednesday there’s been a “breakthrough” in conversations with Americans on Canada’s role in the United States’ quest for energy dominance as President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to cause uncertainty for the bilateral relationship.
“We’ve managed to make a breakthrough on the discussion about energy dominance and how Canada can lend itself to that, whether its our oil, our gas, critical minerals, uranium from Saskatchewan, electricity from many of our provinces,” Smith said in an interview with The Canadian Press at the embassy in Washington, D.C.
“I feel like there’s a real understanding of that.”
Trump returned to the White House set on boosting America’s energy production. Smith said that while the energy argument has seen success, conversations around other industries are ongoing.
The Alberta premier was in the United States capital for meetings and a forum on energy this week as Trump doubled his tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
Canada is a major supplier to the U.S. and Canadian industry says 50 per cent levies will be devastating.
Smith said she had conversations with American counterparts and explained that, particularly for aluminum tariffs, they are “the very definition of a tariff being its own punishment.”
The United States imports about 60 per cent of its aluminum from Canada. The Canadian industry largely uses hydroelectricity to make the high energy costs connected to smelting more affordable. Smith said the U.S. doesn’t have the ability to develop a homegrown industry to fill the gaps.
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“We just have to make sure we are able to make that same (energy) argument on everything else, on the integrated food market, the integrated manufacturing market,” Smith said, also pointing to timber. “(We) haven’t had a full breakthrough on all of that but I think…
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