U.S. no longer a bankable partner says Hoback

Prince Albert Conservative MP Randy Hoback address Prince Albert business leaders at the State of the City address on Tuesday. -- Jason Kerr/Daily Herald

Emokhare Paul Anthony

Daily Herald

Prince Albert Conservative MP Randy Hoback said Canada must find a way to get their resources to markets other than the United States, following a weekend tariff threat from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Hoback, who also serves as the Conservative Party advisor to the leader on Canada-US Relations and Associate Shadow Minister for International Trade said that may mean repealing legislation that prevents expanding to new markets. He said it also means lowering taxes and become more efficient and competitive in the business sector.

“I don’t want to interpret (this as) we don’t want to do business in US. We definitely do want to do business in the U.S. We want to be their partner. We want to be their friend. We want to continue moving forward. We want to work with them, as (Ontario) Premier (Doug) Ford talked about, (its) the North American strength and advantage. We want to be there partner as we take on the rest of the world, but until we’ve got an environment for that to happen, we have to survive and we have to make the choices that allow us to survive,” Hoback said.

Hoback, a member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development said Americans are going to be paying 25 more for goods, they receive from Canada and Mexico at the time which he thought is bad.

On Tuesday, he spoke briefly during the annual State of the City address about the tariffs U.S. president Donald Trump may or may not deploy.

Hoback said it’s frustrating not to have a reliable, bankable parter in the United States, and that’s creating a lot of confusion in the business sector.

“We really don’t know what he (Trump) may or may not do but we know what we have to do,” Hoback said. “That hasn’t changed, whether it was Donald Trump in the White House or Joseph Biden. We need to get our resources to market, so we need to repeal legislation that prevents that from happening. We need to lower taxes and become more efficient and more competitive in our business sector.”

Hoback said there are opportunities to export Canadian natural resources to other markets like Asia and Europe. In the meantime, Hoback said, countries like the UAB, Iran, and Venezuela, are providing resources in Canada’s place.

“I think Canadian are starting to realize there is some common sense that has to happen here,” Hoback said. “One of them is to make sure we get our resources to Market in the appropriate fashion until we have options. The auto sector is the same thing, the auto sector is very structured into Canada, US and Mexico. If that was to fall apart, it’s in a bad situation.”

Hoback echoed comments from other Conservative MPs who said the Prime Minister should recall parliament to deal with the tariff threat. Hoback said that’s the only way to ensure voices from all parts of the country are heard.

Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce CEO Patty Hughes has said tax cuts and getting rid of the complex, making sure that businesses transition or survive this chaos that are seeing at some of the borders.

“The tariffs have been real concern for our business community,” Hughes said. “The chamber as a whole, whether we are on the provincial level or even as a federal chamber, we’ve been throwing a lot of resources at it, trying to understand everything and what are the things that we can help support.”

Hughes said the business community will be pushing for more inter-provincial trade and reducing those barriers. She said Chambers have been lobbying for that for quite some time and that would make up a significant difference already with these pending tariffs.

If the tariffs go into effect, Hughes said she expects the cost of construction materials to go up significantly, and that’s going to hurt local businesses trying to renovate, build, or expand.

Originally, U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to put a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods, expect oil and gas, which would face a 10 per cent tariff. However, he later said the tariff would not be implemented for another 30 days.

—with files from Jason Kerr/Daily Herald

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