OTTAWA — Canada should make sure the U.S. is aware of its critical reliance on Canadian energy but not pull back on those exports just yet, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said Wednesday.
Furey joined other premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at a meeting in Ottawa to discuss Canada's plan to respond to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump's tariff threats.
Trump will be sworn into office for his second term as president on Jan. 20 and has said he intends to impose a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian imports the same day.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said Canada should have options prepared if Trump follows through on that threat, as most premiers expect he will.
Furey, whose province is an oil producer, said Canada must have a proportional response ready but should not play its hand too early by blocking or limiting energy exports to the U.S.
"I see energy as Canada's queen in this game of chess," he said. "We don't need to expose our queen this early. The opposition needs to know that the queen exists but they don't need to know what we're going to do with the queen."
Both Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have rejected the idea of any measures that would affect Canada's energy exports to the United States.
“When you look at the pipeline system, how oil is actually transported into the U.S. and back to Canada … it would be very, very difficult and I think impossible operationally to even consider that,” Moe said.
“Politically, it would be more divisive than anything this Liberal government enacted, in way of policies, in the last nine years.”
When asked about the idea of cutting off or limiting energy exports to the U.S., Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said he doesn't want to see actions taken that undermine national unity.
Kinew said Canada should carefully craft its response to the tariff threat.
“The party that is in a rush to conclude their negotiations typically gives up their leverage in the process. So, I understand there’s a lot of economic uncertainty right now, but we need a steady hand,” he said.
Canada is the top supplier of foreign oil to the U.S. and accounts for about one-fifth of its oil supply.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, currently the chair of the premiers' association known as the Council of the Federation, showed up to the meeting sporting a blue baseball hat bearing the message "Canada is not for sale" — a reference to Trump's repeated claims that he wants to annex Canada into the U.S. using "economic force."
"President Trump wants to devastate Canada," Ford said. "That's unacceptable."
Trump initially said the tariffs were being imposed in response to drugs and illegal immigration crossing the shared border, but has since pivoted to citing the United States' trade deficit with Canada.
Public Safety Minister David McGuinty discussed Canada's plans to beef up border security at the meeting Wednesday morning.
Ford called the border plan "phenomenal" on Tuesday — but it doesn't seem to have deterred the president-elect.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who is attending the meeting with the premiers, said Tuesday his department and Canada's major banks have been working on modelling potential job losses from the tariffs. He declined to share that information.
"We're not going to speculate on what exactly are different scenarios. Next week, we think we'll know the precise details of what these tariffs will mean to the Canadian economy, and of course we'll be ready to respond from a position of strength," LeBlanc said.
Ford estimated that the tariffs could cost 500,000 jobs in Ontario alone.
Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King recently concluded a tour of the northeastern United States to talk about exports from his province.
King said the threatened tariffs could cost his province 25 per cent of its GDP and upwards of 1,400 jobs.
"When you come from a place like Prince Edward Island, that’s catastrophic," he said.
Premier Smith met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort over the weekend. She is attending the meeting Wednesday virtually, as is British Columbia Premier David Eby.
Trump and his allies have been peppering Canada with taunts about making it the 51st state since Trudeau and LeBlanc made their own trip to Mar-a-Lago.
Kinew said Canada needs to pass the “locker room test” in these negotiations.
"Fifty-first state, you’ve got to chirp back. Where are our chirps? This is not just a trade war, this is also a meme war. And have we been showing that ability to chirp back? I don’t know,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 15, 2025.
David Baxter and Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press
