A week and a half after Alberta's referendum, Sheila Gunn Reid says Ottawa is back to treating the province “like garbage.” On Thursday's Rebel Roundup, she and Tamara Ugolini broke down the Liberals' vote on a bill to repeal the oil tanker ban and Ottawa's fight with the owner of Stelco.

Sheila said Bill C-264 would remove the tanker ban on the Pacific coast, and that Mark Carney and the Liberals voted it down on Wednesday. She said a federal court had ruled the ban unconstitutional after a challenge led largely by Alberta.

Conservative MP Dane Lloyd said in a clip from the House of Commons that a Canadian energy company is willing to upgrade the port of Prince Rupert so oil can ship from there.

“Mark Carney, your bluff is being called,” he said, adding the fifth-largest oil sands company in Alberta wants to ship oil by rail out of Prince Rupert within two years, and “the only thing that stands in their way” is the prime minister.

“The rail line has already been built. We don't need any more studies,” Lloyd said, adding that lifting the ban would let 250,000 barrels a day reach Asian markets. He said Ottawa has already given the Port of Vancouver an exemption, and that Prince Rupert, being on the open coast, is in many ways a superior port.

Tamara shifted the conversation to Stelco. 

Go Ad Free

Cleveland-Cliffs, an Ohio-based company, bought the Hamilton steelmaker in 2024 after promising to keep a similar number of unionized workers in Canada for five years, according to a government statement at the time. Last month, the company announced it would idle production in Hamilton, eliminating 500 jobs company-wide. Tamara said 175 workers have been laid off so far.

Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves said the cuts are justified by an unprecedented trade war. Tamara said he told the Canadian Press he bought Stelco to stop it from flooding the U.S. market with cheaper steel, while Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said Ottawa has contacted its lawyers about what she called his “confessions” and questions whether the commitments were made in good faith.

Sheila said it was a private sale approved by Ottawa and asked why the government would threaten court action or financial penalties against a company that is paying its taxes.

Rebel Roundup streams live Monday through Friday at 11 a.m. MT / 1 p.m. ET.