REGINA - Opposition Leader Carla Beck continued her fight against the Trump tariff threat on Thursday by calling for a major push for east-west lines across the country.
Flanked by NDP jobs critic Aleana Young and by President Mike Day of Steelworkers Local 5890, Beck called on “provincial governments and the federal government to make massive new investments in rail lines, pipelines, power lines, and in highways.”
The four pillars the NDP are calling for include “new private and public investments to expand rail and port capacity,” to ensure rapid and reliable movement of agricultural products and mining products onto ships for international markets. She called for “major moves to add short rail line capacity,” which she said had been neglected under the current government.
On pipelines, Beck called for construction of a pipeline to the East Coast, “something that will get oil and gas off rail and onto new markets in Europe and beyond.”
On highways, Beck called for Highway 1 - the Trans-Canada Highway — to be “twinned from coast to coast so that truckers can quickly and safely move goods across Canada without needing to enter the United States.”
The fourth pillar, which critic Young spoke about, was electricity.
“If we want to keep the lights on, grow our economy, secure the country, we need to have a serious conversation about electricity,” said Young. She called for the repairing and expanding of electrical transmission into Alberta and Manitoba to sell power generated in Saskatchewan.
“We need power lines, inter-provincial transmission running east, west, north, and yes, even south. And we need the federal government to pay for it.”
The NDP’s latest announcement, which happened right across from a major rail line near Brandt Industries west of Regina, took place as ever-changing positions on tariffs keep on coming from south of the border.
Earlier on Thursday President Donald Trump indicated the 25 per cent tariffs would indeed be imposed on Canada and Mexico in March 4 in response to the fentanyl crisis at the border — this coming after the indication the previous day seemed to be that those tariffs would be delayed to April 2.
That news drew another outraged reaction from Beck.
“Every day, we see Donald Trump threaten our sovereignty. And he moves the goalposts on tariffs,” said Beck. “We saw that again yesterday, and again just this morning. It's all been just like a game of Russian roulette, and our government leaders simply can't make the best decisions with a gun to our heads about the future of our economy.
“The past several months clearly should have been a wake-up call for all of us. We need to build out an economic future that is in our control. And we need to be less reliant on the United States increasing our access to overseas markets in Asia, and Europe, Mexico, and South America.”
The NDP were also asked about Premier Scott Moe’s statement on social media the previous day that Saskatchewan would consider all pipeline projects pre-approved. There is still a question, however, whether the Premier has the jurisdiction to approve them.
“I've just stated today, we understand the need to get pipelines built,” said Beck, who acknowledged “that that is not in the Premier's jurisdiction right now.”
But Beck said there was a need to “bring the right people to the table” to get pipelines built. It was noted the NDP had been calling a Saskatchewan task force, one which Young described would “ensure that all voices were included in that. Industry voices, public sector voices, Indigenous voices.
“And whether Premier Moe likes it or not, those are all voices that need to be at the table,” Young said. “Industry doesn't want to be in court any more than the government does, any more than First Nations want to be in court. So doing this in a good way, actually getting things done — not just putting out tweets on the Internet — is what we're focused on. We're focused on the future and actually getting these projects built.”
Beck repeated the same talking point that getting things accomplished wouldn’t happen through Tweets.
“People aren't looking for more spicy language. People are looking for their leaders to actually act like grown-ups, to get to the table and get things done.”
“Stunning about face” from NDP, says Sask Party government
When asked for their response to the NDP announcement, the Sask Party government dismissed it as a “rather stunning about face from a party that has relentlessly criticized the government’s international engagement efforts to diversify Saskatchewan’s markets at every turn.”
“Over the past 17 years, our government has tirelessly and consistently worked to reduce interprovincial trade barriers, support pipeline projects and other vital infrastructure, and engaged with our industry partners to expand and open up new international export markets,” their statement read.
“Unlike the NDP, we didn't come to these positions as a result of threats from Donald Trump. These have always been our positions, as they represent what is best for Saskatchewan's economy, jobs and families.
The SaskParty statement also pointed to examples of “the NDP record” including criticisms by MLAs including Beck and Young of international trade engagement efforts and offices, as well as the NDP casting their votes in the Legislature against the Canada-EU Free Trade Agreement, the Keystone XL pipeline and the Northern Gateway pipeline.
