As we all pause to say thanks for yet another TACO Tuesday, it’s time to have larger conversations about Canada’s future.
U-S President Donald Trump says our nations have a tentative deal, not yet confirmed by Prime Minister Mark Carney, which is why he is pausing a new set of 50% tariffs on 28 billion dollars worth of Canadian goods for three days.
The other good news is that the current talks may have expanded to include relief from existing duties on steel aluminum, lumber and automobiles.
They may also result in the revival of the Keystone X-L pipeline, which would be great news for some but may fall short of where we should be aiming now given our new relationship.
Never mind the fact that Keystone was effectively cancelled by then new-President Joe Biden when he pulled the permits by executive order in his first days of office. I think we should aim bigger.
If we truly want to be less reliant on our larger (and more volatile) trading partner to the south, then we should finally invest in oil processing capacity on our own turf.
Why should we invest years and billions of dollars supporting U.S. oil refineries when we could develop a “made in Canada” solution.
It’s expensive and controversial, but would also make it possible to have greater control of one of our most important products both in and outside of Canada.
Instead of relying on another TACO or Trump Always Chickens Out moment, perhaps we should be looking for more MICS – short for Made in Canada Solutions.
I’m Paul Martin and that’s what I see looking Beyond the Headlines.
