Tim Houston: Now is the time for Canadians to find common ground and get things done
Tomas Kauer 
The relationship between the United States and Canada runs deep and is steeped in history. We are neighbours, friends and share similar values, but it’s actually much deeper than that. In many ways, we are like cousins.
And like all families, we don’t agree on everything. Sometimes our cousins do things that don’t make sense, like impose tariffs on Canadian products. But we can’t lose sight of the big picture.
Today, our cousin’s leader, U.S. President Donald Trump, is making a mistake. The tariffs he is imposing will not only hurt Canadian workers and businesses, but they will hurt American workers and businesses as well. Hard working people on both sides of the border who are just trying to get by will be affected.
These tariffs are shortsighted and harmful, but we cannot control what happens in Washington so we have to focus on what we can control. For me, that means taking steps to protect Nova Scotia.
That means supporting companies in their search for new customers in new markets , efforts that are working. In 2025, exports to France, Denmark, Spain and Italy combined were 37 per cent higher than in 2024, representing $67 million of additional exports.
That also means continuing to make it easier for Canadian companies to do more business in other parts of the country. Interprovincial trade sounds easy but has been remarkably difficult. Every time we make progress, another issue pops up . But we remain undeterred, because we cannot expect the U.S. to do for us what we will not do for each other.
And, of course, that means becoming more self-reliant. Complacency allowed us to become too dependent on others. Here is just one shocking example: today, virtually every unit of natural gas used in Nova Scotia comes through the U.S. Think about that. It is a massive vulnerability. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Nova Scotia actually sits on enough natural gas to power the entire Maritimes for 80 years at current demand levels. Developing this resource means the potential for more affordable energy and greater energy security.
Importing someone else’s energy forever is not a strategy.
But onshore natural gas is just the beginning. We also have vast potential resources of offshore natural gas and oil. All told, Nova Scotia has up to 150 trillion cubic feet of potential natural gas and about 49 billion barrels of potential oil. We can’t just sit on them. Nova Scotians and Canadians need us to get to work developing this extraordinary opportunity, and we are.
As staggering as the natural gas and oil numbers are, Nova Scotia also has enough offshore wind to produce more than 60 gigawatts of clean energy, enough to meet nearly a quarter of Canada’s electricity needs. Said another way, that’s in the neighbourhood of all the electricity used in the province of Ontario.
Developing the first five gigawatts of offshore wind and the necessary transmission infrastructure requires roughly $50 billion in investment, a figure roughly the size of Nova Scotia’s entire economy. But we are ready to do our part to make sure that Canada is an energy superpower.
We are also ready to produce and supply the raw materials that Canada and the world need. Nobody can build affordable housing, hospitals, schools, roads or anything without raw materials. Canada can either import them from foreign countries with lower environmental standards or we can mine them safely here, keeping more of the economic benefit at home and ensuring better paycheques for Canadians.
Over the past year, major mining projects have continued to advance across Nova Scotia. The Goldboro gold project and Antrim gypsum mine received key approvals, while the Touquoy gold mine, Little Narrows gypsum mine and Scotia mine have received full provincial approval to restart. These are not isolated announcements, they are momentum.
We are not just talking about becoming more self reliant some day. We are doing it now.
Moments of great uncertainty often become moments of great possibility. This is such a moment.
Canada was built by people who didn’t agree on everything, but they agreed on enough to find common ground and get things done. Now is the time to find that common ground and get things done.
In Nova Scotia, we are moving forward just like we always have.
If you have the capital, the expertise and the ambition to build something, come join us. I’ll welcome you with open arms.
But come ready to think big because, as the Prime Minister says, Canada has everything we need. Now we need to use it.
Tim Houston is the Premier of Nova Scotia
