Prime Minister Mark Carney will sit down with Canada’s premiers in Huntsville, Ont., Tuesday to deliver a detailed briefing about his government’s ongoing trade negotiations with the Trump administration.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Carney agreed in June at the G7 summit to try and reach a trade deal by July 21, but Trump recently moved that deadline to Aug. 1.
Carney’s briefing on how those negotiations are going lands in the middle of the three-day first ministers’ meeting where the premiers are discussing their own response to the trade war.
Carney said he was coming to the meeting shortly after Trump announced his intention to impose 35 per cent tariffs on non-CUSMA compliant goods, referring to Canada’s trilateral trade deal with the U.S. and Mexico.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who is hosting the meeting, arrived Monday just before lunch to chair the first day of talks with Indigenous leaders, including Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak.
Carney arrived in Muskoka on Monday evening to have dinner with the premiers at Ford’s cottage, after spending the day hosting a bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators to discuss trade.
As well as trade, Carney and the premiers will discuss Arctic security, wildfires and emergency management, labour mobility, immigration, health and public safety.
Before those discussions kick off Tuesday, Ford, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith will begin the day by signing a memorandum of understanding to build new energy and trade infrastructure.
When he arrived at the summit, Moe said it’s becoming obvious Carney’s warning that it’s unlikely Canada can strike an entirely tariff-free deal is “the reality of the situation.”
“Exceptions, carve outs, exclusions, exemptions — whatever you might call them, that is the reality: that we won’t get to zero on each and every topic,” he said.
“The goal is to get as close to zero, on as many items that we possibly can. I know that’s the prime minister’s goal as well.”
