Vaughn Palmer: Eby ignored his own advice on threatening retaliation for U.S. tariffs

B.C. Premier David Eby Photo by Government of B.C.

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VICTORIA — Premier David Eby has made development of B.C.’s critical mineral resources central to his whole “Look West” strategy for growing the provincial economy.

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He says development of critical minerals means thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in investment and the revenues to help pay for health care, education and other government programs.

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So it is hard to fathom why the premier linked the long-term critical minerals strategy to short-term retaliation against Donald Trump’s tariff rampage against B.C. and Canada.

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Yet there he was on two successive days recently, suggesting a tit-for-tat cut off of U.S. access to B.C.’s critical minerals as payback for Trump’s latest hike in duties on B.C.’s lumber exports.

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“We can’t have a country on one hand attacking one group of families and workers while hoping to have access to the resources in Canada that the rest of the world wants,” Eby told reporters July 22.

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“The United States needs to make up its mind,” said Eby, referring to U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra’s recent roundtable meeting with mining companies over opportunities to invest in critical minerals in Canada.

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“We need to be frank with the Americans that they will not get the kind of access that they seek, if this is how the conduct is going to go.”

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Next day, he was at it again.

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The Americans were saying in effect “we need these metals and minerals — and we want to ensure that our market has access to what you have in British Columbia,” said Eby.

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However “that requires a certain level of co-operation around permitting, around investment, around financing, around transportation and refining,” the premier continued, underscoring the level of co-operation access would entail at the provincial level.

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“But the idea that you can just pick and choose what’s in Canada like a buffet and only take what is it you perceive to be of advantage to you while saying no thank you to the things where Canada delivers lower cost and more affordable products for Americans — that’s not a relationship, frankly, that I can support,” declared Eby.

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The premier’s implied threat drew a statement of alarm from the B.C. mining sector.

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“As a Canadian, I feel the frustration that Premier Eby and the other premiers and our prime minister feel,” Mining Association CEO Michael Goehring told Derrick Penner of Postmedia.

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“It’s a volatile situation, (but) to restrict critical mineral exports to the U. S. at this time, given the administration that’s on the other side of the table, it would most likely lead to a severe escalation in this existing trade war and it would be counterproductive.”

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It takes years to identify, secure, plan and develop even one mine in B.C. Were investors likely to make long-term commitments if the premier toyed with the idea of cutting off a potentially prime customer for the output?