Prime Minister Mark Carney travelled to New Brunswick and met with Premier Susan Holt for the first time since taking office.
Holt has been advocating for the federal government to include New Brunswick in its nation-building projects list, which Carney has previously said will “turbocharge” Canada’s economy by approving and fast-tracking major projects of national interest.
Speaking with reporters in Fredericton on Monday, Carney said the province will be on the list when the next batch of projects are announced Thursday.
“I’ve had a number (of) conversations with the premier about major projects here that meet the criteria,” he said.
“They strengthen Canada’s autonomy. They diversify our economy. They’re built with Indigenous partners. They’re consistent with their climate goals and they have a real economic return.”
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Holt said the project to be announced won’t be Nova Scotia-based Wind West, which the federal government has already earmarked for support.
“We’ll get the news on Thursday, so I don’t want to scoop the announcement that’s going to come, but we’ve been working hard on a number of projects,” said Holt.
“We’ve been working hard on an number of projects, and the announcement won’t be the interties (transmission interconnections between neighboring electric systems). It will be one of the other projects that we’ve been pushing for.”
Going into the meeting, Holt identified softwood lumber as a priority, specifically negotiations with the United States over softwood lumber tariffs and duties.
Afterwards, she told reporters Carney has a “good handle” on the file and “the kind of seriousness that we are hoping for.”
“When the prime minister says in the next two weeks they’ll confirm more supports, I can live with that,” she said.
“We talked about some of the specific next steps that need to happen on the softwood front to represent what Canadian industry is prepared to do in order to get the tariffs removed.”
Carney’s visit to the province comes in the midst of tense Canada-U.S. relations. During a media event in New Brunswick, Carney said the U.S. is trying to “shut out” Canada’s forestry products, making it important for Canada to source locally.
“This is a radically different U.S. trade policy than anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes. It’s radically different,” Carney said.
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