Oil sands, bisons and Tic Tacs: Inside provincial trade rep offices in Washington

As Canada and the U.S. hold trade talks, the provinces and Washington offices seek to influence the negotiations. Abigail Bimman reports.

WASHINGTON – When half a dozen industry and business representatives from Manitoba walked inside the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) office Tuesday, the province’s man in Washington jokingly called them the Avengers.

“This has never happened before,” Manitoba Senior Representative to the United States Richard Madan told CTV News after their meeting with USTR staff.

The Avengers left feeling optimistic, despite known trade irritants standing in the face of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico (CUSMA) free trade deal, up for review on July 1.

“(U.S. trade officials) signaled that even though the president signed the agreement six years ago, he’s not attached to it,” Madan said.

“There are some irritants that need to be worked out, but I thought our message was clear: that Manitoba provides a reliable food supply, a reliable supply chain from Iowa to Missouri. Manitoba literally brings home the bacon.”

Canada’s Embassy in D.C.: Home to three provincial offices too

Manitoba is one of the newer provinces with a Washington presence, but Ontario and Alberta have had outposts there since 2013 and 2004, respectively.

CTV News visited the Canadian Embassy Thursday, where Ontario and Alberta’s offices sit right next to each other, and Manitoba’s around the corner.

The embassy is a just a short walk from Capitol Hill, where the reps tell us they spend a good deal of time. Quebec has an office in a separate location, and did not respond to a CTV News request for an interview.

Inside Ontario representative David Paterson’s office is a small round table where the four provinces sit down together bi-weekly. They also have bi-weekly meetings together with Canadian federal officials. Paterson believes the “Team Canada” approach in the overall trade push is helpful.

“Our federal government is responsible for trade, they hold the pen. But we like to say we’re the ink in the pen,” he tells CTV News.

The reps spend a lot of time explaining to or educating Americans about how Canada works and why the trade relationship between the two countries is so complex – and critical.

A little jar of Alberta oil sands in D.C.

Alberta representative Nathan Cooper brings a prop to his meetings: a sample from the Alberta oil sands in a small jar. He’s spent the past two days meeting with House and Senate members to talk energy.

“So few people realize that 60 per cent of every crude oil barrel imported into the United States comes from the province of Alberta. 4.5 million barrels a day. That’s over a billion barrels of oil a year that the United States imports from Alberta, and so we day in and day out work to get this important message out,” Cooper tells CTV News.

In general, Cooper describes Alberta’s approach to the U.S. relationship as very “proactive,” with attention paid to the federal level as well as state to state.

Cooper says his office has been able to speak to United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer about Alberta energy and agriculture, and has “a high level of confidence,” that Greer “understands the foundational pillars” of CUSMA more broadly.

While he doesn’t use the phrase “Team Canada” like his colleague next door, Cooper says Alberta’s work is “definitely complementary” to the federal trade push, and while Alberta and Ottawa “have a variety of opinions… certainly right now we continue to work hand in hand with the federal government” on the Washington file.

Asked if the topic of Alberta separation comes up, Cooper says it’s not significant in discussions.

“On occasion, I’ll hear from Members of Congress, more so out of an interest of, like, ‘What’s actually happening there?’, and so it’s easy to describe the democratic process that’s taking place in Alberta, but it very quickly moves on to the key issues that we all face together, which is largely energy and agriculture.”

“I think it’s important for Canadians, and particularly Albertans, to remember that no matter what’s happening between our federal governments, this trading relationship that Alberta and United States, that Canada and the United States share, is unique around the world, and so we need to do everything that we can to help preserve this relationship.”

‘Optimistic’ about a CUSMA deal by Labour Day: Paterson

If Cooper is spending his time explaining Canadian energy to Americans, Paterson is doing the same with autos.

Paterson spent 20 years in the auto sector, which gives him a unique lens on one of the key concerns at the CUSMA negotiating table. He says Americans “often forget” Canada is their biggest market.

“If Canada was to close off our purchase of American vehicles, that would be devastating to several auto plants’ worth of jobs in the United States. Just as if they were to cut off our vehicles going into the United States, it would be devastating to us. And so we have a mutual self-interest in finding solutions.”

Like the federal U.S.-Canada trade minister Dominic LeBlanc, Paterson is “optimistic” a renewal of CUSMA is possible.

But Paterson says it won’t be done by the July 1 deadline. He thinks it could happen before Labour Day. If it doesn’t, he says, many lawmakers return to their districts and will be caught up in campaigning for the midterm election.

“While everybody is here, and while we have the focus and the time, we don’t have any specific deadlines, or the federal government doesn’t, but we, the provinces, want to be a little bit of a burning platform behind them to say, ‘come on, let’s get it done.’”

Paterson is gearing up for a two-day visit by Ontario Premier Doug Ford to Washington set for next week.

Ford has a history of being the most outspoken Canadian politician in the U.S.-Canada trade fight. Notably, there was the infamous Ronald Reagan ad blamed for a freeze in talks and the time he poured out a bottle of Crown Royal. Speaking in Toronto today, Ford said President Trump is “back on his high horse” with his latest 51^st state comment.

CTV News asked Paterson whether Ford’s actions ever make his job harder on Capitol Hill. He said he’s met with more than 150 Republican lawmakers since he arrived in the capitol, and he has “not had a bad meeting yet.”

“Sometimes we say things that perhaps are, whether it’s coming out of Washington or elsewhere, that can be upsetting, but we need to separate noise from signal here an awful lot.”

Paterson pointed to some optimism in the auto fight, when earlier there was talk of having no cars coming from Canada, “and here we are discussing what the rules will be,” he said, referencing news that Mexico and the U.S. were looking at rules of origin specifics.

‘They love Canada’: Paterson

“They love Canada,” he said in general of his meetings with Republicans.

“They often apologize for what we’re going through… but they are also the first to say, look, it’s a policy of the President, it’s a policy of the United States, for us to adopt tariffs here… and it’s not just on Canada, it’s on 100 countries around the world,”

Paterson says there’s a learning opportunity in seeing what worked and didn’t work among the deals made with other countries, that helps when Canada gets to the table “as we’re now finally doing.”

If Alberta has a jar of oil sand, what tokens from home do Manitoba and Ontario offer?

Paterson’s desk was littered with several containers of Tic Tacs and a couple of Ferraro Rochers, made at the Ferraro Canada plant in Brantford, Ont.

Manitoba showed CTV News inside the office described as a “war room” – an election campaign term - and offered a small bison squeeze figurine, with “Manitoba” stamped on its back.