Citing Tariffs, Insults To Canada & Impact On Alaska, Legislators Defend Neighbors

CANADA & ALASKA 

"We Share A Common Bond" 

Tariffs Threatened To Begin In Days… 

Legislators From Both Alaskan Parties Attempt To Cool The Animosity 

The Alcan between Canada and Alaska. (Country Journal Archive, 2017) 

 

From The Alaska Beacon 

Alaska lawmakers advance resolution defending Canada and opposing trade restrictions

BY: YERETH ROSEN - FEBRUARY 28, 2025 

Amid pending tariffs, verbal attacks and insults lobbed against Canada by President Donald Trump and his team, several Alaska lawmakers want to present a contrary message. They are working on a resolution affirming friendship with and appreciation of Alaska’s neighbor to the east and opposing punitive trade policies against that nation.

The measure, Senate Joint Resolution 9, “honors Alaska’s alliance with Canada and looks forward to many more years of cooperation, friendship, trade, tourism, cultural exchange, and good will,” according to its wording.

On Thursday, it cleared its only assigned committee, the Senate Special Committee on Arctic Affairs.

Resolutions are not laws or regulations, and they do not set policy. Rather, they express lawmakers’ sentiments, with the intention of influencing policies.

 The Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St-Laurent approaches the U.S. Coast Guard  icebreaker Healy in the Arctic Ocean on Sept. 5, 2009. The coast guards from both countries have cooperated on Arctic patrols and research missions, as they were here. A pending legislative resolution opposing anti-Canada trade policies cites common Arctic interests, among other Alaska-Canada ties. (Photo by Petty Office Patrick Kelley/U.S. Coast Guard)

In this case, senators are expressing opposition to Trump antagonism directed toward Canada. That includes the 25% tariff on Canadian goods that Trump has vowed will go into effect on Tuesday.

This resolution proclaims that the Alaska Legislature “opposes any restrictive trade measures that would harm the unique relationship between Canada and Alaska or negatively affect our integrated economies.”

IntiMayo Harbison, a staffer to Senate Majority Leader Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, Said the resolution gives historical context to the close and multifaceted relationship between Alaska and Canada “and humbly implores the United States federal government to not impose measures that would jeopardize the best interests of Alaska.”

Harbison, who outlined the resolution at Thursday’s hearing, spoke about the many ties between Alaska and Canada.

“As Arctic neighbors, we share a common bond and rely on one another to effectively manage our resources, trade, defense, tourism and many other aspects of our daily lives,” he told committee members.

Some of Alaska’s economic dependence on Canada is quantified in the resolution’s working. It cites 20,300 jobs in Alaska that rely on Canadian trade and investment and more than 47 Canadian-owned companies that operate in Alaska and employ 4,350 state residents.

Among the possible Alaska victims of tariffs imposed against Canada is the Red Dog mine, an economic powerhouse in Arctic northwestern Alaska. It is owned and operated by a Canadian company, Teck Resources, and it ships its ore to Canada for refining.

 Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornets rendezvous with a U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker and E-3 Sentry on June 5, 2024, during a North American Aerospace Defense Command sortie over Western Alaska on their way to Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait. State senators noted that Alaska-Canada ties extend to military defense. (Photo by Senior Airman Andrew Britten/U.S. Air Force)

Two leading state senators cited another kind of reliance: defense.

“The United States and Canada have fought wars together, and they’ve been our allies,” said Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak. Some of the highest death rates during World War II’s Normandy invasion were sustained by Canadian soldiers, he said.

Giessel said the alliance endures, and it is notable in Alaska.

“If we need to rally the military defense, it’s the Canadians that join us. The Chinese and Russian vessels and aircraft that have bumped along our borders, the Canadians have responded as well, even this year,” she said.

Members of the committee, which Giessel chairs, advanced the resolution toward a floor vote in the Senate.

A similar measure, House Joint Resolution 11, is now pending in the state House. House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, introduced it on Wednesday, and it is set to be heard in that body’s resources committee.