Smith to outline Alberta’s response to U.S. tariffs, says oil still off the table
Posted Mar 4, 2025 10:57 am.
Last Updated Mar 5, 2025 7:56 am.
Alberta’s premier is expected to outline the province’s response to U.S. tariffs on Wednesday after blasting the duties imposed on Canada by U.S. President Donald Trump as an “unjustifiable economic attack” on Canadians and Albertans.
In a statement released Tuesday, Danielle Smith calls the tariffs a breach of the trade agreement originally signed by Trump and says she fully supports the response from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“These tariffs will hurt the American people, driving up costs for fuel, food, vehicles, housing, and many other products,” reads the statement. “They will also cost hundreds of thousands of American and Canadian jobs.”
Trump followed through on his threat to hit Canada and Mexico with sweeping economy-wide tariffs, 10 per cent on energy and 25 per cent on all other goods, which came into effect at midnight.
Canada has responded with immediate countermeasures, imposing 25 per cent retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion worth of American products, with the levy set to expand to cover another $125 billion in U.S. goods in 21 days.
Smith appeared on CNBC News Tuesday saying she fully supports the response, taking a tougher tone with the U.S. President than she previously has.
“To see this escalation is so disappointing, so damaging, initially to American consumers and American businesses who buy Canadian goods and raw materials,” she said. “But now with counter tariffs it’s going to be harmful to Canadian consumers.”
The premier added that Alberta will not impose counter tariffs on its energy exports because it is such an essential product for Americans.
“We’ve got some 4.3 million barrels a day going into the U.S.,” Smith says. “We want to make sure that flow continues, albeit it’s going to be a little bit more expensive.”
She says she plans to meet with her cabinet Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss Alberta’s response, and is scheduled to publicly reveal the details on Wednesday afternoon.
Alberta’s latest budget, introduced last week, earmarks $4 billion in part to deal with the expected economic fallout of the tariffs, but the government hasn’t offered specifics.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox Business New that Trump will likely meet Canada and Mexico “in the middle” with an announcement coming as soon as Wednesday, adding the tariffs would not be paused but that he would reach a compromise.
Trudeau said he would meet with the premiers to discuss potential non-tariff responses, adding that some provinces are looking at blocking American companies from bidding on publicly funded contracts.
Other provinces have announced they will pull American liquor from government store shelves, and some are looking to cancel government contracts with U.S. companies in response to the tariffs.
Meanwhile, Smith is calling on all premiers and the federal government to work together and strengthen Canada’s trade ties with Europe, Asia and the Americas.
“We must do everything in our collective power to immediately tear down provincial trade barriers and fast-track the construction of dozens of resource projects, from pipelines to LNG facilities to critical minerals projects,” she says.
“We also need to drastically increase military spending to ensure we can protect our nation. There is no time to waste on any of these initiatives.”
The U.S. president has cited trade deficits and the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. as his reason for imposing tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports. Smith has made moves to escalate Alberta’s war on fentanyl, taking steps to increase police and prosecutorial resources to go after fentanyl labs, “kingpins” and dealers in response.
She said Tuesday the flow of illicit drugs that Trump has complained about is not a one-way street, suggesting the president’s changing rationale for the tariffs suggests he doesn’t want a deal.
Smith made headlines in January when she refused to sign a joint statement from all other premiers and the prime minister to use export taxes on Canadian energy as a leveraging tool against the tariff threat.
The same month, she travelled south for a face-to-face meeting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. Calling the meeting an effort to stave off the levy on all Canadian goods — including Alberta’s mainstay oil and gas exports.
With files from The Canadian Press
