Premier David Eby says B.C. will play a "key role" in a new international order charted by Prime Minister Mark Carney in a speech in Davos, Switzerland.
Carney told the World Economic Forum on Monday that the world order is undergoing a "rupture, not a transition," and Canada is responding by fast-tracking a trillion dollars of investment in energy, AI and critical minerals as it diversifies trade relationships.
"I listened to the prime minister's speech with a sense of relief and pride," Eby said Wednesday.
"Relief … because the prime minister is saying what we need to say, and that he is charting a course that we have to chart."
Eby said the "significant rupture" described by Carney requires middle powers like Canada to find like-minded countries.
"The pride in the sense that I believe British Columbia is going to play a key role in what the prime minister is charting out here," the premier said.
In his speech, Carney said Canada lives in an "era of great power rivalry" as the "rules-based order is fading" with the strong doing what they can, and the weak suffering what they must.
But Carney also said that other countries, particular middle powers like Canada, have the capacity to build a new order that embodies values like respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Eby said Wednesday that there is "no question that the prime minister's speech will have consequences" as it relates to Canada's relationship with the United States.
"But those trade consequences are minimal, compared to the larger-term consequences of giving up our sovereignty as a country, and not standing bravely as Canadians have for generations for this beautiful country we live in."
The premier was attending the BC Natural Resources Forum in Prince George, B.C., where he made several mining-related announcements and discussed his recent trade trip to India.
Eby said India, the world's most populous country, will see "significant growth" in the coming years and needs a reliable trading partner that can supply metals and minerals.
"That is where our huge opportunity is," Eby said.
He repeated his previous prediction that British Columbia will be the "economic engine" of the new economy currently under construction in these challenging times.
"We will leverage our access to the Pacific and the growing markets there," he said.
Eby said Carney's speech underlined the urgency of speeding up projects, and this is not the time to create uncertainty by repealing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, because it would make B.C. less attractive for investment, by inviting court challenges.
"The consequences will be chaos, unemployment and economic contraction at a time when our country cannot afford it."
Projects worth tens of billions of dollars would stop in their tracks if British Columbia were to stop talking to First Nations, he said.
"The nations will file court actions, injunctions based on their title rights, which are well established in court under the Canadian constitution, S. 35," he said.
"The idea that could move faster or that you could provide jobs and employment in rural British Columbia through the resource sector without partnerships with First Nations is false. It's destructive."
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
