Premier Doug Ford is proposing a closer relationship with the U.S. when it comes to critical minerals while at the same time boasting that the province won’t “roll over” should president-elect Donald Trump follow through on his threatened tariffs upon taking office next week.
Ford made the comment during a news conference at the Royal Ontario Museum on Monday where he discussed a plan to create a new Am-Can Critical Mineral Security Alliance that would “help to build out American and Canadian critical mineral supply chains,” in part, by reducing red tape in resource-rich areas like Ontario’s Ring of Fire region.
The alliance is the latest in a series of announcement geared towards strengthening the U.S.-Ontario trade relationship as part of Ford’s “Fortress Am-Can” pitch.
But the premier told reporters on Monday that he isn’t taking retaliatory actions off the table and has a “list” of measures prepared should Trump impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods.
Ford has previously suggested that Ontario could cut off the electricity it supplies to approximately 1.5 million homes in New York, Michigan and Minnesota in response to the tariffs, among other actions.
“When our country is under attack economically, when our province is under attack economically you just don’t roll over,” Ford said when asked specifically about the energy threat. “Maybe I come from a different school but I believe in negotiating through strength not weakness.”
Ford’s comments on Monday come after Alberta Premier Danielle Smith met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend.
Smith, for her part, told reporters following the meeting that Alberta ‘won’t stand’ for any attempt by the feds to use an energy embargo to combat Trump’s threatened tariffs.
Ford, however, has refused to take retaliatory actions involving the electricity Ontario supplies to the U.S. off the table.
“Let me be very clear. I am speaking for Ontario. I am not speaking for Alberta, I am not speaking for Premier Smith but we (Ontario) have to use all the tools available,” Ford said on Monday. “When you look at the things the U.S. needs, the U.S. needs aluminum from Quebec or it devastates their manufacturing, they are in desperate need of our high-grade nickel from Ontario, they need the energy from Ontario and the electricity and they need the potash from Saskatchewan that gets shipped down to all the farmers in the U.S…”
Ford’s news conference on Monday came after NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh told reporters on Parliament Hill that Canada should in fact move to restrict the export of critical minerals to the U.S.
Speaking with reporters, Ford pointed out that 46 per cent of the nickel used in the U.S. comes from Canada, calling it some of the “highest quality nickel in the world.”
“At a time when China is winning the race to dominate these resources while also restricting the sale and shipment of critical minerals to the U.S., Canada and Ontario need to urgently get our critical minerals out of the ground, processed and shipped to the factory floors that are building for the future,” Ford said.