Kirsten Hillman:
So, first, I think it’s important to point out that, when this proposal, if you will, came from the president around potentially adopting 25 percent tariffs on all Canadian imports into the United States, it was on the basis of border security.
And since that time, we have listened to what he said, and we have put forward a very expansive $1.3 billion plan to buy new helicopters, additional physical resources, additional personnel. We are proposing, and the U.S. incoming administration has reacted very positively to that, a Canada-U.S. task force, a strike force on the fentanyl crisis.
So we are trying to lean in to actually a cooperation, a partnership on a topic that’s very important to us. This border, it’s got two sides. It’s as important for us for that border to be safe and secure and crime-free as it is for Americans. So, just to put that on the table, that is our first effort in preparations for these discussions.
And for — so far, the people we have been able to talk to about it, I think, are reacting — like Mr. Homan, are reacting very positively. The tariffs themselves would be very difficult. Canada is the number one customer of the United States. You sell more to us than you sell to any other country in the world, more than you sell to Japan, China, the U.K. and France combined.
So we are a very important source of sales and exports for American people, and, likewise, obviously, the United States is a very important customer for our products. So it would be mutually very difficult. It would immediately raise prices. There’s no question about that. Prices at the pump would go up. Prices across consumer goods would go up. Prices for businesses would go up.
And it would be very, very difficult for us. It would be very difficult for Americans as well.
