INNISFAIL – Red Deer-Mountain View Member of Parliament Earl Dreeshen says he’s confident Canada can avoid punishing American tariffs if Canada focuses its attention on Donald Trump’s demands of fixing the border problems.
In an interview with the Albertan on Jan. 22 the Conservative MP said as far as Trump’s threat of 25 per cent tariff hikes are concerned it has appeared that “no one” was paying attention to what the American president was trying to say.
“He said that if you solve the problems at the border and you solve the fentanyl issue, then there will not be a problem,” said Dreeshen. “But he said, ‘it doesn't look like it's going to happen, so I'm going to throw tariffs on.
“Now, everybody wants to talk about tariffs, and if he (Trump) puts it on what are we going to do in retaliation? Well, maybe we should not be putting the cart before the horse. Maybe we should be thinking about ways of solving the problems. It would benefit everyone if we could stop the illegal movement of drugs and human trafficking and everything else that takes place across our border.
“We have a responsibility to look after that and that's what Trump was asking us to do instead.”
However, Dreeshen noted that Alberta is doing a “good job” with its new security initiative at the border, with other provinces looking at doing their own measures.
Last month the Alberta government announced it was spending $29 million to beef up security along the nearly 300-kilometre border with Montana.
The provincial initiative will include a two-kilometre deep “critical border zone, a new Interdiction Patrol Team of 51 sheriffs at Alberta’s southern border, patrol dogs, cold weather surveillance drones, and four narcotics analyzers to test for illicit drugs.
In the meantime, the federal government also announced last month it is investing $1.3 billion towards border security. The plan includes a new Aerial Intelligence Task Force comprised of helicopters, drones, and mobile surveillance towers.
In the meantime, Dreeshen said he is “definitely” optimistic the divide between Canada and Trump can be resolved.
“I go back to that initial point. And the initial point is what has been said is fix the problem, and we seem to forget that. That is what it's all about,” said Dreeshen, adding that while a solution is doable he’s less confident it can be done with the current federal government.
“I'm not optimistic that this (Trudeau) government is going to put that (solution) onto the table, because for them having conflict and having one group against another has been the way they have functioned for their entire time.
“It's a federal initiative, so it's up to them to get their act together.”
