Alberta’s minister in charge of agriculture says as the tariff situation continues to evolve he and his office are making sure open dialogue with producers is happening.
Alberta Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation R.J. Sigurdson says his department has been working hand in hand with industry partners across the province not only including various boards and commissions, but also farmers, ranchers, and agri-processing businesses. He says his office is making sure the conversations are being had about not only what could happen between now and March 3rd but after as well.
“The conversations that we have had really expand on how integrated our food supply chain is between the U.S. and Canada, and it’s because of that integrated food supply chain that builds food affordability for U.S. citizens as well as Canadian citizens,” Sigurdsson says. “President [Donald] Trump was very clear in his election that he wanted to deal with food affordability and energy affordability. We know, of course, we’re a very large supplier of energy to the US and that we can help him achieve that.”
According to the minister when word about potential tariffs came down, conversations were started about how the provincial government could help deal with them. He says he believes Premier Danielle Smith’s approach to advocacy through spending time in the U.S. and meeting with President Trump and all of his administration is a step forward in the right direction. He says this approach is an opportunity to share with the administration and the president how Alberta can help achieve their goals.
“The right approach is to sit down and have a collaborative conversation with President Trump, his administration, listen to his concerns, acknowledging that he does have concerns about border security and the movement of drugs, especially fentanyl, and dealing with that.”
Sigurdson says he thinks by continuing to have these conversations south of the border there will be a better outcome for Alberta.
However, he acknowledges while political leaders are doing that advocacy work he understands for many the threat of tariffs has caused a lot of stress and anxiety for those in the agricultural industry.
“I want to encourage anybody, if they have any questions, concerns, or they just want to have a conversation to know more about what our government is doing as a response to please reach out to my department. We are trying to do our best to make sure that we have conversations with anybody to make sure that they’re aware of what our plan is and what we’re working on right now to be able to avoid these retaliatory tariffs on our agricultural industry.”
