Alberta premier slams U.S. tariffs as ‘foolish,’ but energy retaliation off the table

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith lashed out Tuesday as hefty, sweeping U.S. tariffs kicked in on Canadian goods, but she reiterated she won’t retaliate by hiking levies on oil and gas heading south of the border.

“This (U.S. tariff) policy is both foolish and a failure in every regard,” Smith said in a statement.

She called the tariffs an “unjustifiable attack” and a clear breach of the trade agreement that U.S. President Donald Trump signed in his first term in the White House.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump’s long-promised executive order took effect, hitting Canada and Mexico with 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs, with a 10 per cent levy on Canadian energy.

Canada then announced retaliatory tariffs on $155 billion worth of American goods, with $30 billion being applied immediately.

Other provinces announced they are pulling American liquor from government store shelves. Some are banning U.S businesses from bidding on provincial contracts.

Smith said she and her United Conservative government supports the federal government’s response and will announce its own response plan Wednesday.

“These tariffs will hurt the American people, driving up costs for fuel, food, vehicles, housing and many other products. They will also cost hundreds of thousands of American and Canadian jobs,” she said.

Smith reiterated that Canada must work to tear down provincial trade barriers, build pipelines, beef up military spending and strengthen trade ties with other allies.

Speaking to American network CNBC, Smith said the province would not impose counter tariffs on energy exports, calling it an essential product for American consumers and businesses.

Her government has advocated for increasing energy exports to the U.S., but Smith said Alberta would have to look to other markets if the U.S. tariffs persist.

“I would love to sell double the amount that we are right now to the United States,” she said.

Now, producers need to look at how they can sell more out of the west coast, out of the east coast and to the north, she said.

“If the Americans don’t want our products, the rest of the world does.”

Smith lobbied hard in the weeks preceding the tariffs to try to head them off.

She travelled to Washington for Trump’s inauguration and visited his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in January. She has said she would continue to push for unencumbered trade between the two countries.

She told CNBC that addressing the flow of illicit fentanyl into the U.S., which Trump has said is the impetus for the tariffs, is not a one-way street.

“We are not the root of a lot of the problems,” she said, pointing to the “spillover” of drugs coming into Canada from the U.S.

“As issues have been raised, we’ve been solving them and yet new issues keep popping up, which suggests that we’ve got a president that actually doesn’t want a deal. That’s a problem.”

Trump offered a month-long reprieve on tariffs after Ottawa announced its plan to increase border security, with more than $1 billion in spending and the appointment of a special fentanyl commissioner. Alberta put an extra $29 million into border security.

Alberta’s latest budget, introduced last week, earmarks $4 billion in part to deal with the expected economic fallout of the tariffs.

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said Smith’s approach to diplomacy failed and he criticized the premier for waiting until now to craft a plan to deal with a trade war she should have been prepared for.

“She thought her balls-and-parties tour of Mar-a-Lago and Washington D.C. would get Albertans a reprieve from devastating tariffs that will wreak havoc on our jobs, our industries and our way of life,” he said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2025.

Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press