Latest news with #SteamworksBrewingCompany
CBC
17-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Trump in the driver's seat as B.C. buckles up for new legislative session
Social Sharing When British Columbia's Legislature opens for the first time in nine months on Tuesday, the driving force behind the province's politics and the government's upended agenda will be thousands of kilometres away. New Lt.-Gov. Wendy Lisogar-Cocchia will deliver a throne speech outlining the NDP government's goals, opening the legislative session against the backdrop of economic uncertainty and the looming threat of whopping tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump. The speech will lay out the NDP government's "plan to defend British Columbians in these uncertain times and secure a brighter future for everyone who calls this place home," said B.C. Premier David Eby in a Family Day statement on Monday. The provincial government will expand affordable child care, help people buy their first family home and get a family doctor, crack down on organized crime and keep repeat offenders off the streets, Eby said. "And we will accelerate our work to build a sustainable, clean economy with good, family-supporting jobs so generations to come can keep the family tree firmly planted here in British Columbia," he said. WATCH | Aluminum tariff will bump up beer can costs, breweries say: How aluminum and steel tariffs could impact B.C. breweries 6 days ago Duration 8:36 Mike Patterson from Steamworks Brewing Company says that Canadian aluminum is often used to make cans in Washington state, which then get shipped back to B.C. craft breweries. He says he's trying to make the case against punishing U.S. tariffs with the Craft Brewers Guild and other breweries in the Pacific Northwest. Already, at least one flagship promise is out the window, with last week's cancellation of the government's $1,000 grocery rebate by Finance Minister Brenda Bailey, who said the government would also have to "revisit" its election vow for a middle-income tax cut in future budgets. B.C. was facing an "unpredictable" future she said on Thursday. Opposition Leader John Rustad said the government should have been on this problem shortly after Trump won the U.S. election. "Should we have had that honour of forming government, I would have been in Washington back in November," Rustad said. "You have to understand how Trump negotiates. This is how he negotiates, right, with a lot of bluster and threats." But Bailey said last week that the impact of Trump's threatened tariffs were impossible to predict, with B.C.'s budget scheduled for release on March 4, the very day that a pause on Trump's threatened tariffs on Canadian exports expires. "At a time when Canadians across the country are pulling together, our number one priority is to be ready to defend the people of B.C. no matter what comes next," Bailey said. She said part of the government's response to the tariff threats will be to protect current resources, making sure that provincial investments are working as intended for the people of B.C. "For the budget next month, it's impossible to predict what the tariffs may be, let alone their impacts. That makes it very challenging to know what we need to have at the ready to deliver targeted help for impacted businesses, people, workers to get through what could be an incredibly difficult time." Eby was in Washington, D.C., last week along with Canada's other premiers and met with top White House officials. WATCH | Premiers take tariff talks to Washington: David Eby joins premiers in meeting with Trump advisers to discuss tariffs 5 days ago Duration 2:00 U.S.-Canada relations remain tense as the threat of steep tariffs on Canadian goods looms, but Canada's premiers did get some face-time with senior White House officials during their visit to Washington. Katie DeRosa has more on their campaign against the levies. He told media afterwards that he believed there are ways the two countries can work together on Trump's demands to increase prosperity on both sides of the border. "But what's on offer right now, unfortunately, is continued threats of tariffs, uncertainty. It's not clear what the objectives are, and in that atmosphere, British Columbia only has one choice, which is to look to other customers and that's what we're going to do." House Leader Mike Farnworth told reporters last week the tariff threats are the "number one priority" facing the government, which clung to power with a one-seat majority in last fall's election. 'Rather raucous' The NDP holds 47 seats and faces a large opposition party for the next four years with the Conservative Party of B.C. holding 44 seats. The B.C. Green Party holds two seats and agreed to support the NDPs on confidence votes. Rustad said he expects this legislative session to be a "rather raucous time." "We have a lot of new MLAs and they are going to be eager to hold the government to account," he said. Key issues will be fentanyl, the borders "and what's going on with Trump," Rustad said. "He wants the borders protected. He wants to stop the flow of fentanyl. And guess what? That's what I want too." Mike De Jong, who was an MLA representing the B.C. Liberal Party, then BC United between 1994-2024, said that while the province has lived through other crises, this one is different. "There is a level and type of uncertainty out there that is very concerning and will impact, potentially, Canada, but we do need to put that in perspective when we talk about uncertainty," De Jong said, referencing the 2001 attack of the World Trade Center in New York City, the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. A key difference is that B.C. is economically weaker now with a record deficit, said De Jong, who's currently seeking nomination for the federal Conservative Party. "A big difference is, and this is true provincially and federally, the government's ability to step in and address that uncertainty, perhaps provide fiscal supports is very, very much diminished and compromised," De Jong said. "As much as I deplore and find insulting and unacceptable the tactics and language of President Trump, the fact that we are in such a weakened position today to respond is the fault of governments in Canada."
CBC
12-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
Eby says U.S. economic integration 'last thing' B.C. wants, ahead of White House trip
Social Sharing British Columbia Premier David Eby says "the last thing" the province is considering is further economic integration with the United States, as he and other premiers prepare for a White House meeting with President Donald Trump's advisers. Eby says that instead B.C. is "looking for other customers" for everything from aluminum to seafood. He says the premiers have had a series of "really positive discussions" with Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C., as they seek to head off Trump's threatened tariffs. The Council of the Federation, which represents all provincial and territorial premiers, says that due to the White House meeting, all other engagements were cancelled for Wednesday afternoon. Eby said earlier the common theme in the meetings so far is that elected representatives from all parties understand the importance of the relationship between the U.S. and Canada, as well as the objectives. But, he says "it's a puzzle" for British Columbians why the U.S. would, for example, place a tariff on aluminum that they cannot get elsewhere. Eby says Canada will never be the 51st state as Trump has suggested, but there is a lot to be discussed with the U.S. about working closely together on transnational organized crime "or whatever it is the president is interested in." He says the two countries don't have to fight and cause economic damage to each other. Aluminum sector looks for other markets British Columbia's aluminum sector will find new markets beyond the U.S., provincial Mines Minister Jagrup Brar said, after the prospect of American tariffs as high as 50 per cent on Canadian metal exports emerged. Trump's planned 25 per cent tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum would be stacked on top of a broad 25 per cent levy on Canadian goods, said a White House official who confirmed the plan on background. "Whether it's 25 per cent or more, it's going to affect families and businesses on both sides. There's no doubt about that," Brar said in an interview on Tuesday. "We are very confident that we can help the aluminum business access markets as quickly as possible." WATCH | B.C. breweries could take hit from aluminum, steel tariffs: How aluminum and steel tariffs could impact B.C. breweries 16 hours ago Duration 8:36 Mike Patterson from Steamworks Brewing Company says that Canadian aluminum is often used to make cans in Washington state, which then get shipped back to B.C. craft breweries. He says he's trying to make the case against punishing U.S. tariffs with the Craft Brewers Guild and other breweries in the Pacific Northwest. Brar said it takes roughly five years to get an aluminum smelter up and running, so U.S. consumers would be paying more for goods made from aluminum for at least that amount of time. "It's a fact that B.C. is well positioned to diversify our trade and help businesses access new markets," Brar said. The 25 per cent U.S. tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports were announced Monday and are set to take effect on March 12. Trump previously threatened 25 per cent across-the-board tariffs on Canadian imports, with a lower 10 per cent levy on Canadian energy, and said those tariffs could still proceed in early March. B.C. produces aluminum as well as metallurgical coal, which is used to make steel. While some of B.C.'s metallurgical coal is exported to the U.S., most of it is shipped to other markets such as Asia, Brar said.
CBC
12-02-2025
- Business
- CBC
How aluminum and steel tariffs could impact B.C.'s craft beer shops
Mike Patterson from Steamworks Brewing Company says that Canadian aluminum is often used to make cans in Washington state, which then get shipped back to B.C. craft breweries. He says he's trying to make the case against punishing U.S. tariffs with the Craft Brewers Guild and other breweries in the Pacific Northwest.
