REGINA — The trade situation for Saskatchewan industry took another turn this week after U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest musings about imposing steep tariffs on Canadian fertilizer.
NDP critic for Energy and Resources Sally Housser was among those concerned about the impact of “increasing tariffs on our most precious resource of potash.”
“It would be such a massive own goal for the United States and devastating to American farmers, but should be incredibly worrying to everybody in Saskatchewan.”
Housser said what the potash industry needs is “predictability and stability, and when we're talking about investment and growing the potash sector in our province, the conditions we have now is anything but predictable and stable.”
Housser was also dismissive of the response from Premier Scott Moe.
“The premier said repeatedly today that we have to take Donald Trump seriously, but it's clear that the U.S. administration does not take Premier Moe seriously.”
Housser noted that Moe had been in Washington, D.C., where he met with Trump’s inner circle two weeks ago.
“And then we see last night the result of that — the president threatened to massively increase tariffs on our most precious resource. It's not working.”
Housser added that Saskatchewan and Canada are “not in a position where we can simply cross our fingers and hope that Donald Trump sees the light and deals in reality and makes the right decision.”
“What we have to be focusing on now is diversifying our export markets, but also ensuring that we are able to export from within our own borders. If we are in a situation where we are relying on moving our products through the United States to get to overseas markets and to get to a diversified market, that is also very dangerous for our economic sovereignty and our economic future.”
On that point, Housser was asked about Nutrien’s decision to set up a West Coast port in the United States instead of in Canada.
“We very much understand Nutrien having to make a business decision, but it's unfortunate that due to successive failures of federal Liberal and Sask Party governments we do not have the export infrastructure we need here in this country,” Housser said.
“We have to be able to move our product through our own borders, and whether that is increasing at Port of Vancouver or looking at Prince Rupert or even now the possibility of Port of Churchill, we cannot find ourselves in the same position 10 years from now. Access to ports has got to be a priority for the Sask Party government.”
Housser was also asked about the future of the USMCA agreement between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. — an agreement the government has often pointed to as protecting industry from tariffs, but which also faces an uncertain future based on recent Trump comments.
“Again, hope is not a plan for this government,” was Housser’s reaction.
“We've seen the volatility of the president and we cannot keep on this roller coaster. It's not good for business. It's not good for the predictability and stability of our revenues. We have to start looking at being able to do more ourselves within our own borders. And I think one thing that's clear from the current president and U.S. administration, that a respect for agreements or the rule of law is not something that is a top priority for them, which again increases our level of risk. So just hoping that it's not going to get worse and hoping that it's going to get better, [as it] is a risk that we cannot afford.”
Housser was at Conexus Arts Centre for an event co-hosted by the Saskatchewan Chamber and the Regina Chamber of Commerce called the Tariff and Trade Forum. The event included a panel discussion on the trade issue.
She was asked about what she was hearing from those in attendance, in particular on the news regarding potash in the previous 24 hours.
“One thing that business is getting to is the idea of this new normal,” Housser said. “But one thing that's consistent is a need to diversify. Obviously, we want to be able to get back to a scenario that is less volatile with the United States. They are our biggest trading partner. But in the meantime, I think every industry knows that we have to be looking further afield at this point.”
She said being able to do more to get their products to market, and to diversify, was an overarching theme.
“We need more pipelines. We need more rail lines. We need more transmission lines. And we need to start building it now. It cannot be delayed any further. But particularly for Saskatchewan being the landlocked province that it is, that port access and rail access, we can't be facing the bottlenecks. And this is not a new thing. Industry has been talking about this for a decade, about the bottlenecks towards port access so that we are able to export our product. That has to be priority number one for Saskatchewan.”
