“We don’t need their fuel, we don’t need their energy, we don’t need their oil and gas. We don’t need anything that they have.”
Those were the words of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump at a press conference in Washington on Thursday.
While some often chalk up his sometimes radical talk to just bluster, this week it seemed many were taking him much more seriously. After weeks of TV appearances on U.S. cable news by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Ontario Premier Doug Ford and meetings about how to deal with Trump’s threat to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on all goods shipped from to the U.S. from Canada, this week the former and soon-to-be-again president honed in on his expansionist dreams.
Trump wants Greenland and the Panama Canal. And, amidst a week of turmoil in Ottawa, which saw beleaguered Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing that he would be stepping down, Trump spent considerable energy speaking about turning Canada into the 51st state.
But it was Trump’s words Thursday evening that probably hit the hardest in Alberta, especially for Smith, who has been gamely trying to make the case for her province and its natural resources any chance she can.
Smith kicked off the week by joining Enbridge Inc. president and chief executive Greg Ebel to announce the prospect of guaranteeing a “significant” volume of oil and gas for new or expanded pipelines. All in the hopes of encouraging the company to increase its transport capacity to the U.S.
While there is no actual deal yet, there is a letter of intent between the government, the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission and the company to figure out how transport capacity could be added across more than 29,000 kilometres of pipelines in the Enbridge network.
On Monday, she said that guaranteeing product from Alberta would give Enbridge and other companies the impetus to expand pipeline capacity, thereby encouraging producers to increase their output.
She also said discussions are being held with other pipeline companies to reach similar agreements.
“We’re quite happy to negotiate with Enbridge a significant amount of barrels,” Smith said. “Our intention would be to provide that guarantee as a mechanism to show how serious we are about getting these lines built.”
Enbridge’s mainline system, the largest oil transportation system in Canada, has expanded significantly over the past decade and carries around 3.2 million barrels a day, up from 1.5 million.
Ebel said Monday that Enbridge is already eyeing several hundred thousand barrels of capacity additions, mainly through pipes that are already in the ground and in existing rights of way.
He too said he expects this could encourage significant production growth.
“We’re not asking for dollars and cents from the government. It’s about them utilizing the pipeline systems to get the best value for Alberta,” he said.
Smith said she believes encouraging investment in oil and gas transportation would help make the case that the U.S. needs Canadian resources and would also strengthen the bonds between the neighbouring countries.
Of course all of that happened before Trump spent the week staring longingly north of the border. It’s still more than a week until Trump’s inauguration, where Smith, who is attending, says she will continue to try and make the case for Alberta.
“Canada is a strong, independent nation with the ninth largest economy in the world, and our southern neighbour benefits from this economic strength,” Smith posted on X on Tuesday. “I will continue to share with Americans the economic story Alberta has to tell and that’s why I will be in Washington during the inauguration.”
This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.