Premier Danielle Smith says turning off the taps to the United States would put Laurentian Canada into an energy crisis. “The energy security that we have in eastern Canada, virtually 100% of what they get comes to them via the United States,” she previously claimed.

Smith has frequently clashed with Ontario Premier Doug Ford over his calls to impose tariffs on oil and gas exports. “Alberta will never agree to such an absurd and self destructive idea,” she said.

A similar tax in the 1980s sent Alberta into a multi-year recession, quadrupling unemployment and costing the province $100 billion in revenue.

Premier Ford urged Alberta to follow the “Team Canada approach” to no avail. 

Premier Smith explains why she refuses to cut off oil & gas going to America.

"The reason I object to that is because if the United States turns off oil & gas coming to Canada, Ontario and Quebec can get zero oil & gas. The only way they get their oil & gas is from America."… pic.twitter.com/Qsa5mdB4jE

— Juno News (@junonewscom) March 17, 2025

“What I objected to is people telling me, I should turn off oil and gas going to the United States,” Smith told a Calgary audience yesterday.

"The reason I object to that is because if the United States turns off oil and gas coming to Canada, Ontario and Quebec can get zero oil and gas,” she clarified. “The only way they get their oil and gas is from America.”

Between 1988 and 2020, Ottawa spent $488 billion ($604 billion in 2020 dollars) on foreign oil imports during that period, including $94.6 billion from the United States. The majority of imports went to Québec, according to the Canadian Energy Centre.

The U.S. received 97% of Canadian crude oil exports in 2023, with 87% coming from Alberta. Roughly half of those exports go to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

Doug Ford calls on Danielle Smith to add an export tax on Albertan oil headed to the US, saying it will "instantly" change negotiations.

Smith immediately rejected the idea. pic.twitter.com/i7Aggxld1c

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) March 10, 2025

“One day I think you might have to use that Trump card and give approval for an export tax because … that will instantly change the game,” Ford told reporters on March 10.

“When the Americans, all of a sudden, [see] their gas prices go up $90 to $1 a gallon, they will lose their minds.” Smith refused to agree to something that would cause mass job loss.

Tensions flared up further after Québec Premier, Francois Legault, claimed there was “no social acceptability” for pipelines like Energy East, a “nation-building” project cancelled in 2017. 

If completed, the pipeline could have transported 1.1 million barrels of crude oil daily, reducing reliance on foreign imports. Legault says their pipeline politics may change over the Trump tariff dispute. 

The federal government introduced a 25% levy on $30 billion worth of American products the following day. Should the trade war remain unresolved, the Liberal government will expand them to cover another $125 billion in U.S. goods in the coming weeks.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith rejects Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly’s suggestion of imposing an energy embargo on the US, calling it an empty, impractical threat that would harm Ontario and Quebec.

She warns that pursuing an energy embargo would lead to a national unity… pic.twitter.com/Q8qynjZ4lo

— Juno News (@junonewscom) January 13, 2025

“Why wouldn’t we be talking about providing energy security to our friends in …Québec … by having our own pipeline built?” Smith earlier told reporters. 

Rebel News asked Premier Legault on the prospects of interprovincial pipelines going through his province. “We need to have social acceptability,” he said.

TC Energy, who cancelled Energy East, waved the white flag after a burdensome regulatory review brought construction to a standstill. 

The Bloc Quebecois fiercely opposes “the transport into Quebec territory of hydrocarbons from western Canada to any market whatsoever.”

Tanker bans and regulatory hurdles have made it difficult to approve and develop oil projects in Canada.

“It does not serve Quebec. It does not serve the environment. It does not serve the planet,” said Bloc leader Yves-Francois Blanchet. Only 26% of residents from La Belle province hold that sentiment.

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