WEYBURN, BELLE PLAINE – During what was a big week for the mining and oil and gas industries in Saskatchewan last week, the talk again was all about President Donald Trump.
The latest pronouncements from the White House saw President Trump once again threatening to hit Canada with a 10 per cent tariff on goods that are non-CUSMA compliant, citing concerns about forced labour. Trump was threatening upwards of 60 countries with 10 per cent tariffs this week, and he also resumed online musings about making Canada the 51st State.
On Truth Social, Trump posted that latter comment while linking to a Bloomberg article about Canada being in a technical recession.
This latest chatter comes as a looming July 1 date approaches for review of the Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement. Speaking to reporters June 3 in Weyburn at the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show, Premier Scott Moe had a calm response to the latest from the White House.
“I don't know and I won't comment each and every day on what the President is going to say about the relationship, or the tariff relationship, that he might like to have with Canada,” Moe said.
“We're finding our way into… that CUSMA review. I think Minister (Dominic) LeBlanc was down there with his team as recently as yesterday, and I would just encourage all Canadians to maybe just set aside — not entirely but to some degree — the language that might come out on a daily basis, and keep our focus on what we want to have in a trade relationship at the end of the day, which largely mirrors what we have today, which is the CUSMA agreement. We want to have that or maybe even an enhanced agreement, but for sure we want to have preferential trade access to the United States of America.”
Moe called that access “very important for us in Saskatchewan.”
“We export over 70 per cent of what we produce. Our largest export to the United States of America is oil. A lot, much of that coming from this very region of the province, and I expect that to continue despite what the daily conversation is.”
NDP Energy critic Sally Housser was also at the Saskatchewan Oil and Gas Show. She felt that perhaps the business community was now getting used to the turbulence seen from the White House.
“You know, it's interesting when, I guess it's about a year and a half ago, that the trade and tariff stuff first kicked off. And, you know, the volatility that people felt in the industry was huge,” Housser said.
“And obviously, it's still a main concern, but I think business people, you know, look at what they see from across the border, and it's almost kind of settling into a new type of normal. People do business to business. It's massively, you know, important for us to maintain a sensible and well thought-out trade relationship with the United States. But I think industry now is not relying so much on the tweets of the President of the United States, and more on what the market is actually doing.”
As for CUSMA, “obviously we'll be watching it closely, as every industry in the country, and certainly oil and gas will be doing. You know, I think people want to see that reliability of relations come back. They want cooler heads to prevail.”
Talk about tariffs
That also seemed to be the mood at an event at Mosaic Company’s Belle Plaine potash mine that same day coinciding with the activities of Saskatchewan Mining Week. There, Mosaic announced a major community donation of $1.5 million to local health and food security initiatives, but much of the talk afterwards was about the latest tariff threats.
Marnel Jones, Director, Government & Public Affairs of Mosaic, said the company’s messaging has been “pretty clear around trade.”
“Obviously we want to make sure that fertilizer can continue to go back and forth over our North American borders, whether that's potash or phosphate — two products that Mosaic makes. And so we need those products to move freely and fairly over borders. And we're going to continue to advocate for that, whether it's with the Canadian government or any other government.”
Jones said about half of the products from the Belle Plaine facility or any of their other sites are going to the U.S.
As for the continued looming tariff threat, Jones said at this point “we're just focused on advocating for farmers and our own business. And making sure that fertilizer continues to be tariff-free and passes over those borders to the farmers who need it to grow the food that all of us are depending on to put on our tables.”
Pam Schwann, President of the Saskatchewan Mining Association, acknowledged that the USA is an “extremely important trading partner for Saskatchewan mining companies.”
“You know, almost 60 per cent of our potash goes to the United States right now. And about 26 per cent of our uranium ends up in the U.S. So, the U.S. will always be an important trading partner.”
Schwann also said her industry was looking for “free tariff – free trade between Canada and the U.S. And we hope that's what happens.”
“You know, our potash helps make the agricultural community in the United States stronger, more competitive. And same as they are, uranium provides basic energy for not just households, but businesses. So, imposing tariffs on those two commodities would actually increase the cost to American households. And that is probably not going to be in their interest. So, we are very hopeful that we see continued free tariff trade between the U.S. and Canada."
