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Carney, premiers seeking plan for national energy, trade corridor

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 21 Mar, 2025 04:57 PM

Prime Minister Mark Carney says he and the country's premiers agreed today to work on a plan to develop a national trade and energy corridor.

Carney and the premiers are meeting in Ottawa to deal with what he called a "crisis" caused by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.

He says after some discussions about the response to the tariffs directly, the premiers turned their sights on "nation building" to build things faster than ever before.

That includes finding ways to better move energy and critical minerals and improve digital connectivity.

The first ministers also talked about moving quickly to eliminate trade barriers between provinces and with the federal government.

In the face of this trade crisis, the premiers and I are going to build one resilient, united Canadian economy.

Let’s get to work. pic.twitter.com/7mid4Ylh9x
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) March 21, 2025

Just days before an expected election call, Carney says Ottawa is also going to waive the one-week waiting period to get employment insurance if your job is cut because of the tariffs, and temporarily allow Canadian businesses to defer income tax and GST and HST payments to help boost their liquidity.

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