Holt presses N.B.'s economic priorities in premiers' call with prime minister

Mark Leger · CBC News

· Posted: May 08, 2025 5:28 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours ago

New Brunswick is acceptable to turn its system to service nationalist and planetary markets arsenic the national authorities tries to resoluteness the tariff quality with the United States, Premier Susan Holt told Prime Minister Mark Carney during a league telephone with premiers connected Wednesday.

She addressed a assortment of opportunities, including a imaginable east-west pipeline, export opportunities done the port in Belledune, modular location operation to capable lodging needs present and crossed the country, and captious minerals developments to proviso a increasing planetary need.

She said the provincial government's priorities each align with ones articulated by the national government. 

"[He addressed] nation-building projects to truly re-energize our economy, to turn our opportunities to commercialized with each different and with the world, and the premier curate asked premiers for suggestions connected what those projects should be," said Holt of Wednesday's discussion. 

"Thankfully, New Brunswick is bursting with opportunities."

The premier said some of New Brunswick's main ports are modernizing and expanding, but volition request national assistance connected upgrades and additions, including obstruction links and different proscription infrastructure.

"[I told him about] the opportunities for national concern with our ports successful Belledune and Saint John, [which] are acceptable to summation their nationalist and their planetary trade, imports and exports of vigor products and different materials and goods with further concern successful concern from the feds," she said.

Province tin assistance lick lodging crisis

The premier told Carney the state is simply a person successful modular location construction, which the premier curate talked astir connected the run way arsenic a mode of addressing the country's lodging crisis. 

"We person companies present that bash this amended than anyone," Holt said.

"They're already selling products to Quebec, to Ontario, to Nova Scotia. New Brunswick tin play a pb relation successful making definite Canadians person affordable places to telephone location successful concern with the national government. These companies are acceptable to expand. They're acceptable to bash much and physique that employment accidental present to assistance lick a situation that Canada is facing."

The planetary system has a increasing request for minerals that are utilized successful a assortment of sectors, including green-energy production, defence, aerospace, accusation exertion and communications.

'We person projects that are acceptable to move'

Holt cited minerals similar antimony, tungsten and copper. She says New Brunswick has 21 of the 34 minerals that Canada has identified arsenic critical.

"We person projects that are acceptable to determination successful presumption of the improvement of captious minerals successful New Brunswick that volition enactment some economical improvement and bully paying jobs for New Brunswickers, but besides enactment immoderate of our captious interests successful the greenish system and the defence sector," she said. 

WATCH | Holt talks astir premier morale amid separatism calls from the West:

"There are a fig of them that are acceptable to beryllium realized done bully concern with the national authorities connected a robust permitting process."

Holt said she and Natural Resources Minister John Herron person engaged with First Nations communities connected their relation successful potential projects, which could see equity stakes arsenic resources are developed.

The premier acknowledged the tensions that beryllium betwixt Ottawa and occidental provinces similar Saskatchewan and Alberta. But she said the premier curate and the remainder of the provinces tin resoluteness those issues by moving unneurotic connected inter-provincial commercialized and creating a nationalist vigor corridor that could see an lipid pipeline to Saint John.

"That's portion of the enactment that needs to beryllium done to bring Canadians unneurotic and to show the ways successful which we are stronger arsenic a unified federation that trades with each other, that leverages strengths eastbound to west, but recognizes that we are a divers state — a big, divers state that shares a batch of antithetic views connected things, but there's much that we hold connected than we disagree on," she said.

As yet, determination is nary private-sector proponent for a revived Energy East pipeline, and Holt said the Irvings haven't yet been engaged successful conversations astir reviving the thought of an export facility. But she says the national authorities sees moving guardant with conversations astir projects similar a pipeline as a priority. 

"Prime Minister Carney made it wide that he's precise funny successful projects that get our resources moving eastbound to west, that unfastened up opportunities to get resources to tidewater into caller markets. That's thing he's prepared to enactment on."

The premiers are scheduled to conscionable adjacent connected June 2 successful Saskatchewan.