Alberta Premier to Visit Montreal, Ottawa to Discuss Interprovincial and International Trade

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith addresses a news conference in Ottawa on Feb.5, 2024. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith will travel to Quebec and Ontario this week to meet with industry leaders in Montreal and international representatives in Ottawa, aiming to identify new trading opportunities for her province.

Smith will visit Montreal on April 9 to meet with Quebec-based private sector representatives in energy, manufacturing, aviation, and transportation, according to a March 8 news release. Smith said “strengthening” ties with eastern Canada is necessary at a time of geopolitical “uncertainty.”

“As a nation, we are facing a great amount of uncertainty when it comes to our relationship with the United States and the broader geopolitical climate abroad. The time to be even more emboldened in our efforts to unite as a country is now,” Smith said.

“I am excited to build on Alberta’s long-standing friendships to find even more ways we can work towards the common goal of building and fortifying trade partnerships to better withstand external shocks.”

During the talks, the premier will promote Alberta as a partner for trade and investment, focusing on opportunities to remove red tape and interprovincial trade barriers, the release said.

The Alberta and Quebec economies have “natural synergies” across sectors like transportation, technology, mining and agri-food that could lead to “enhanced collaboration, expanded export capacity and increased job-creating investments,” according to the government.

The trade mission to Montreal comes after Smith last month proposed collaborating with the Quebec government to “enhance” provincial autonomy and limit “overreach” by Ottawa, an idea Quebec said it is willing to discuss.

“I see an opportunity before us, as the democratically elected leaders of Alberta and Quebec, to chart a path toward a new era in Canadian federalism,” Smith wrote in a letter to Quebec Premier François Legault on March 21.

The Alberta premier has previously said her province would remove trade and labour mobility barriers for provinces that adopt similar measures, as part of a nation-wide effort to boost Canada’s economy in the face of U.S. tariffs. Similarly, Quebec last month said it was taking steps to reduce interprovincial trade barriers by streamlining regulations for certain professions.​

After her Montreal visit, Smith will head to Ottawa to meet with international representatives “interested in enhancing their partnerships with Alberta amid trade uncertainties,” the province said. She will also meet with government officials, according to her itinerary, and return to Alberta on April 11.

With an early federal election scheduled for April 28, boosting internal trade in Canada amid trade tensions with the United States has become a key campaign issue, with the leaders of the two major parties—the Liberals and the Conservatives—proposing different measures to remove interprovincial trade barriers.