Carney, premiers unite to break trade barriers, push nation-building projects

Prime Minister Mark Carney and the country’s premiers sat down together Monday to look at ways to re-shape the country’s economy in response to economic threats from the United States.

They’re talking about making Canada an energy superpower, but there are roadblocks to overcome.

As the meeting began Monday in Saskatoon, there was lots of talk about so-called “nation-building” projects that would energize the Canadian economy, particularly oil pipelines.

Going into the meeting, Carney was looking to the premiers for lists of projects that would boost the economy and jobs across Canada – working as one national economy instead of 13 provincial-territorial economies.

“To eliminate federal barriers to the interprovincial movement of goods and people, and also to put in place an ability to advance projects of national interest,” Carney said.

Before the meeting even started, Premier Doug Ford was signing agreements with Saskatchewan, Alberta and Prince Edward Island to remove interprovincial trade barriers in order to stand up to Donald Trump.

“We’re going to band together. We’ve never been attacked by any leader in the world like we have by President Trump. And make no mistake about it, he is out to take every single job off every single Canadian if he had a choice,” said Ford.

“Just one more way that we are able to stand strong for our provinces,” said Scott Moe, Premier of Saskatchewan.

READ MORE: Trump escalates trade pressure, raising steel and aluminum tariffs

But at the same time, the first ministers faced the long-standing issue of Alberta’s demand for pipelines to ship its oil and gas to markets.

“There seems to be an appetite to talk about getting pipelines built,” said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

British Columbia and Quebec have resisted pipelines in the past because of the environmental threat.

They’re still not saying yes – despite Alberta’s premier saying that leaves trillions of dollars worth of oil, or bitumen, and economic benefit for Canada sitting in the ground.

“Well, you have to understand just how damaged Alberta is by the fact that we didn’t get pipelines built … I will tell you that a bitumen pipeline will be by far the greatest benefit to all of Canada,” said Smith.

Before meeting with the premiers, the prime minister told oil and gas executives in Calgary he wants to develop Canada’s energy.

“The imperative of making Canada an energy superpower in all respects has never been greater,” said Carney.

McMaster University economist Colin Mang says that the pipeline dispute will have to be worked out by the premiers. But he says the meeting in Saskatoon could come up with projects that more than offset the loss in trade to the United States.

“This would be transformational for the Canadian economy. It would really redefine the way the provinces trade with each other. And for the first time in a generation we would start to again see large scale national projects being built,” said Mang.

Instead of providing a list of projects to develop, the prime minister outlined the criteria for projects – like strengthening the economy, benefitting Canada, and being acceptable to Indigenous leaders.

As for pipelines, there’s general support for getting energy to market in some form, possibly treating Alberta bitumen to make it more environmentally acceptable, called de-carbonization. It has some support from Alberta Premier Smith, who calls it “a grand bargain.”

WATCH MORE: Ford ready to bring Canada-U.S. Trade Council concerns to Prime Minister