Best possible deal with U.S. more important than Aug. 1 deadline: Carney

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HUNTSVILLE, Ont. — Prime Minister Mark Carney and the country’s premiers downplayed the importance of a looming Aug. 1 deadline in trade talks with the U.S. on Tuesday, saying the objective is to get the best possible deal for Canadians.

“They’re complex negotiations and we’ll use all the time that’s necessary,” Carney told reporters after meeting with premiers at the Council of the Federation gathering in Huntsville, Ont.

Carney said the government will agree to a deal “if there’s one on the table that is in the best interests of Canadians.”

He said such a deal would be one “that preserves, reinforces and stabilizes” the trade relationship between Canada and the U.S., and “also one that doesn’t tie our hands in terms of other things that we can do.”

Carney was invited to join the premiers in Ontario’s cottage country this week as they gathered to discuss eliminating internal trade barriers and U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 35% tariffs on a wide variety of Canadian goods on Aug. 1.

Carney told premiers that Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc will be in Washington, D.C., this week and said the federal government is “only going to accept the best deal for Canada.”

He also said the government is working to bring long-standing trade issues involving softwood lumber into the broader negotiations, if possible.

At a news conference after the meeting on Tuesday afternoon, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said that while he’d like to see a deal that eliminates tariffs altogether, “we’re not in that world right now” with Trump imposing levies on trade partners around the globe.

“We just have to be open-minded about what that might look like,” he said.

Carney said Tuesday’s gathering offered a chance for the premiers to focus on ways to build a stronger economy. The Liberal government has passed legislation granting cabinet the power to fast-track major projects it deems to be in the national interest, and is set to open its major projects office by Labour Day.

Premiers have submitted pitches for projects they’d like to see fast-tracked, but Carney has said the government has not yet started assembling a list of projects. Houston said he hopes the projects office will be able to provide some clarity on that by the fall.

“We need you to work together to propose ideas and have consensus on the projects that you want to move forward,” Carney told the premiers at the start of the meeting, adding that continuous engagement with Indigenous Peoples is a key part of that effort.

The premiers met with First Nations, Metis and Inuit leaders on Monday.

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Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he believes Carney is close to signing off on a few major projects. His priority is mining in the Ring of Fire region in northwestern Ontario, which is said to be replete with critical minerals.

Ford came out of the meeting saying he believes Canada will strike a good deal with the U.S.

“We’re standing behind the prime minister to make sure that he has a fair and free trade deal for Canada and every single province and territory, and I’m very confident that’s going to happen,” he said.

At the start of the meeting with Carney, Ford said he personally still wants Canada to match Trump’s tariffs “dollar for dollar, and hit him back as hard as we possibly can,” adding strength is the only thing this president understands.

He also said the federal government needs to be ready to support industries hit hard by the trade war, and Canada needs to onshore production of things like aluminum cans and steel beams to avoid tariffs.

“We need to send them a strong message. We don’t have to take a back seat to anyone in the world, and we sure the heck don’t have to take a back seat to President Trump,” he said.

Ford, who chairs the Council of the Federation, said Canadians are urging governments to move quickly.

“Do you know the biggest problem? (It’s) government. Government is the single largest problem in moving things forward,” he said.

“It’s not the people, it’s not the private sector, it’s not First Nations, it’s not unions, it’s none of that. It’s government, endless decades of bureaucracy and regulations.”

Carney commended the premiers on the series of trade agreements they’ve signed to open access to internal Canadian markets.

On Tuesday morning, Ford joined the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan in announcing a new memorandum of understanding calling for the construction of new pipelines using Ontario steel.

The agreement also calls for new rail lines to be built to help ship critical minerals from yet-to-be approved mines in the Ring of Fire to Western Canada.

Ford called the agreement a “game-changer” that focuses on shipping western oil to refineries in southern Ontario and a new deep sea port in James Bay.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she’s heard from Carney that he wants to make Canada an energy superpower, and she wants him to drop “nine bad laws” she said are hurting the country’s business investment climate.

B.C. Premier David Eby was not invited to sign the agreement and said he didn’t know the details. He was asked Tuesday whether his government is open to supporting the construction of an oil pipeline from Alberta to B.C.’s northern coast — something it has vocally opposed in the past.

“There’s no project, there’s no proponent, there’s no private-sector money involved that I’m aware of,” he said. “When Premier Smith crosses those obvious hurdles to get a project done, then let’s have those conversations.”

Despite that disconnect between western premiers, Ford made it clear at an afternoon news conference that the honeymoon is very much on between himself and Carney.

“Full disclosure, the prime minister stayed at my place (Monday night),” he told reporters as Quebec Premier Francois Legault chuckled in the background.

“We had dinner, we were up till 12:30 at night, chatting in front of the fireplace, solving all the world’s problems.”