While Canada is whipsawed by federal politics and tariffs from south of the border, one expert sees strength in national unity if its channelled appropriately.
Impact Public Affairs president Huw Williams was the keynote speaker at the Vancouver Regional Construction Association’s annual general meeting held Feb. 10 in Burnaby, B.C.
Williams addressed the rapid pace of political change at the federal level with Parliament currently prorogued, a prime minister about to step down and a Liberal leadership race all while U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs introduce additional chaos.
“Canada is in a weak position because we haven’t focused on development, built pipelines or a national trade corridor and those sorts of things are what hold us back more than anything else in terms of economic development,” Williams said.
He pointed to the present moment as a unique opportunity where “governments of all stripes are saying, ‘oh my goodness, we’d better get our economic house in order,’” and stressed the importance of industry advocating for itself and highlighting “big picture” development and projects.
“The fact that it’s so difficult to trade from B.C. to the large markets of Quebec and Ontario, that you can’t trade energy through a pipeline that runs exclusively through Canada, and the fact that the social license hasn’t been there but now is, we need to take advantage of and we need to build to hold the country together,” Williams said.
He added Trump’s desire to make Canada the 51st state is a “true threat” and industry must respond appropriately.
“If we don’t build these infrastructures, we’ll be part of the U.S. and they’ll do it for us. It’s better to do it right, the Canadian way,” he said. “In the same way we built the railway in the 1800s to hold this country together, we’ve got to build this social license for major construction projects, ports, liquified natural gas and so on. We’ve got to be in the game.”
He added the Canada-U.S. relationship is like a married couple going through friction but living in the same house.
“We’re going to have a relationship with them and there are lots of voices in America fighting for better trade relations and more respect for Canada, lots of business voices who are now coming online to talk about it,” he said.
“Business voices in the U.S. have been too shy to talk about the downside of tariffs but we’re starting to see that change based on conversations I’m having,” Williams said. “Once one voice breaks through others start to be a little bit braver.”
He added with a political vacuum in Ottawa, Canada’s premiers have taken on the tariff threat.
“Typically in free trade negotiations premiers aren’t the ones setting the table but because of a lack of leadership, not over just the last six weeks and the prime minister departing but the last 10 years that has left us in a position where we’re more vulnerable than we should be,” he said.
“The good news is people are recognizing the economic imperative of Canada being successful is everything. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said the economic horse has to pull the social cart. We need a stronger horse because we’re under serious threat from our U.S. trading partner.”
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