'Everything's on the table,' says N.W.T. premier, on responding to U.S. trade war

As Canada gears up for a trade war with the United States, N.W.T. Premier R.J. Simpson says this is an opportunity to develop Canada's economy and build up the country's mining, refining and manufacturing industries.

Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump delivered on a months-long promise to impose a 25 per cent tariff on virtually all Canadian goods and a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian energy. In response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will slap 25 per cent tariffs on $30 billion worth of American goods coming into Canada. The changes were set to take effect on Tuesday, but after a meeting with Trudeau on Monday, Trump said he would pause the tariffs for 30 days.

Simpson spoke with The Trailbreaker host Hilary Bird on Monday morning — before Trump agreed to the 30-day pause — about how Canada and the N.W.T. are responding.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You met with Canada's premiers and the prime minister over the weekend. What was the mood on that call?

You know, I think the mood was similar to the mood across Canada. A bit of, I would say shocked, but not surprised. I think that we all saw this coming. We're extremely disappointed. Of course, we have such a close relationship with the Americans. We've had that relationship for hundreds of years. And if the Americans want to move away from our free trade agreement, there's actually ways to do that, there's provisions for that. We can renegotiate, we can do it over time so it doesn't cause these massive disruptions. But instead they've taken the decision to just institute these tariffs across the board, which, you know, it's not a scalpel, it's a hammer.

You and other premiers have talked about the need for unity on this issue. Do you think that that's where we're at now? Do you think everyone's on board?

I feel that way. When I'm on those calls with all of the premiers and the Prime Minister, there is a strong sense of unity. And when I talk to people in the grocery store and around town, there's that sense as well. There's a real push to buy Canadian, you know, not just coming from the premiers and the Prime Minister, but from everyone. Like I said, I was in the grocery store the other day, I had about three conversations about it. We were all trying to find the Canadian products on the grocery store shelves. So I think there is a real sense of unity in Canada like there hasn't been for quite a while, I would say.

You made a statement on Saturday about next steps, including the decision to stop buying liquor and cannabis from the United States. What does that look like, and how much of an impact do you think that's going to have given our small population?

So the details are still being worked on, but we want to buy Canadian for the most part. The number one thing we want to do is support Canadian businesses right now and move our money away from investments in the United States. And so I'll leave it up to the experts at the Liquor and Cannabis Commission to figure out what that could look like, but that's our goal.

We're not going to have the same impact that British Columbia or Ontario is going to have, but we're part of Canada, so we have to do these types of things. We need to do our part to make an impact and that's what we can do, so we're going to do it.

Can you tell us about some of the other steps that you're exploring right now?

Well, we're looking at what we procure and where we procure it from. There are some things that we get from the United States that we're likely going to have to continue. Microsoft, for example, we don't have an alternate operating system to Windows and we use Microsoft Teams for our meetings. So that one would be difficult to move away from, but across departments, they procure a number of different goods and some of those do come from the United States in the amount of millions of dollars in some cases. So we want to look at all of those and see if there are alternate places to source them from. The fact is, there may not be in some cases, but nonetheless we need to try.

What about American companies operating here, mining companies, outfitting companies, that sort of thing? Are they expected to see any changes, do you think?

We want to see investment in the Northwest Territories and in Canada. So if American companies want to come up here and invest in Canada, if mining companies want to come and make investments, we're happy to see that. Of course, we always want to support local businesses and Canadian businesses, but we are not ready to just close the borders to the United States at this point. We need to make a point. We need to not roll over, but we need to continue business, and our economies are so integrated still and will be for many, many years, even with these tariffs, that there's always going to be Canadians working in the United States and vice versa.

There have been calls, particularly from MLA Kieran Testart, who has said that he's looking for the territorial government to implement a tax on U.S. outfitters, or that sort of thing. That's not something that you're ready to look at yet? 

Everything's on the table. So I want to have a conversation with cabinet, with the minister of finance, minister of tourism and have these discussions.

Testart also demanded the federal government cancel the contract with Parsons, an American company that is heading up the cleanup at Yellowknife's Giant Mine. What do you think of that?

The federal government, as far as I know, is looking at all of the contracts they have with American companies, and I'd be supportive of any decision they make to make changes.

What impact do you think these tariffs will have on the future of critical minerals here in the Northwest Territories?

Well, it's difficult to say. I think the American military is still interested in our critical minerals despite any tariffs. And so I wouldn't be surprised to see continued interest from them. It will be more difficult to attract investment to Canada in general, which would then impact us. 

But we have an opportunity here right now. There's a sense across Canada that we've become too dependent on the United States, and we have. And we need to start building up our own industries, our own capacity and that includes things like mining, refining and then manufacturing. And so the critical minerals are the first step in that process to developing new industries and advancing the industries we have, in things like, you know, computing or green technology and things like that. So we can play a critical role. And everyone recognizes this too. I hear when I talk to the premiers and the prime minister, everyone recognizes the importance of critical minerals in the North.

Does this change your strategy at all now that you know that there are tariffs coming into effect?

You know, I think everyone in Canada is probably re-evaluating strategies at this point. We still have so many natural resources in the territory and we've always been pushing to ensure that we can develop those sustainably, and now we have to look at it from a different lens. I think there's an opportunity to develop Canada's economy and now we can be a driver of Canada's economy as well. There's a lot of focus on the United States and their need for defence equipment that requires these critical minerals, but now we can really focus on Canada and work more closely with our partners in the other jurisdictions.

What are the next steps when it comes to exploring how the N.W.T. is going to respond to all of this? 

Well, after I leave here, I am going to meet with cabinet and we're gonna have that discussion and explore what the potential next steps would be. We're working with Canada and the other jurisdictions to look at what other non-tariff measures we can take. We talked about stopping the purchase of goods from the United States – what else can we do? So we're going to have those conversations. 

When do you think we could know what the next steps are?

You know what, this has been a very unpredictable issue. And so I don't have a date for you, but I mean, in the coming weeks, we're definitely going to be hearing more.