It's time to let Keystone XL go, ambassador says

Canada's ambassador to the United States says there's no chance of President Joe Bidenwalking back his decision to kill the Keystone XL pipeline so she's turning her attention to other pressing bilateral issues.

"It's obviously very disappointing for Albertans and people in Saskatchewan who are already in a difficult situation," Kirsten Hillman said in an interview airing Saturday on CBC's The House.

"But I think that we need to now focus on moving forward with this administration, and there are so many ways in which we are going to be aligned with them to our mutual interest that I'm eager to to get going on that."

Biden vowed during last year's presidential campaign to rescind Donald Trump's permit for KeystoneXL, which would havelinked Alberta's oilsands with refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. And he did, making it one of the first executive orders he issued within hours of taking office on Wednesday.

While the move was applauded by progressives in his Democratic Party and in Canada, it struck a heavy blow in Alberta. TC energy, the company building the pipeline, halted construction and laid off a thousand workers.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney lashed out this week at both Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, accusing the federal government of abandoning the oil and gas sector.

He released a letter to Trudeau on Friday calling on the federal government toretaliate by imposing economic sanctions on the United Statesorby demandingcompensation for TC Energy and his government which invested billions of provincial taxpayers' dollars into the project. The premier even took his case to Fox News on Friday.

"It's very frustrating that one of the first acts of the new president was, I think, to disrespect America's closest friend and ally, Canada, and to kill good-paying union jobs on both sides of the border and ultimately to make the United States more dependent on foreign oil imports from OPEC dictatorships," Kenney told the Fox audience. "We don't understand it."

Hillman didn't comment directly on Kenney's demands, insisting instead thatCanada remains the "best partner" for helpingAmericans meet theirenergy needs.

"But we have to recognize that the Biden administration has put fighting climate change at the centre of their agenda," she said."Not only their domestic agendabut their international agenda."

CBC News: The House10:03Canada's top U.S. diplomat on Biden's first week in office

Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the United States, reflects on President Joe Bidens move to revoke the presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.

Goodbye, Keystone hello 'Buy American'

Keystone'sabrupt death isn't the only recent challenge to a Canada-U.S. relationship that's been severely tested over the past four years by Donald Trump. Many Canadians see Biden as not only a more reliable partnerbut as a friend to this country.

Some of his policies suggest otherwise.Hillman said she's already spoken to the White House about another Biden campaign promise this one to restore "Buy American" requirements for major government contracts, a move that could freezeCanadian companiesout of U.S. government work.

"Less than an hour after the end of the inauguration ceremony, we were in touch with top-level advisers in the White House and discussed many things," she said. "Among them was Buy America."

Biden is proposing a massive, $400 billion infrastructure program that would award contracts exclusively to U.S. companies. As big as that program is, it will be dwarfed by another Biden proposal to invest $2trillion in clean technologies and infrastructure.

Hillman said such protectionist measures are not new. In the past, Congress hasimposed restrictions to limit or exclude foreign companies from bidding on infrastructure projects, or from supplying U.S. companies that do.

Canada has successfully negotiated exemptions to such policiesbefore most recently through the 2010 Canada-U.S. Agreement on Government Procurement, which gave companies in this country access to stimulus projects funded under the U.S. Recovery Act.

No link between Keystone and carve-out, says Hillman

Hillman was asked in The House interview if the federal government's muted response to the Keystone decision is tied to its hopes forgetting a carve-out for Canadian businesses under Biden's Buy American policy. She said there's no connection.

"Our job here is to work with the administration to demonstrate to them, factually, that as they pursue their domestic goals, the highly integrated supply chains that we have with the United States are essential to protect and preserve for their economic recovery objectives," she said.

"I'm optimistic that we are going to be able to have meaningful conversations with them around how they can meet their policy objectives while also being sure that we protect our mutually supportive supply chains."

Hillman said she sees other opportunities for cross-bordercooperation in the Biden administration's decision to rejoin the Paris climate accordand the president's vow to meet the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

Canada's hopes for a green tech boom

Biden has nominated former secretary of state John Kerry as his special presidential envoy for the climate a new cabinet-level position intended to underscore Biden's personal commitment to addressing climate change.

"That provides a lot of opportunities for green tech, for Canadian clean energy, for working together on emission standards, for innovation in our automotive industry," Hillman said.

The Trudeau government is trying to position Canada as a global leader in green technologyfields. It introducedlegislation requiring Canada to become a net-zero emitter by mid centuryand last month unveiledthis country's first national strategy to develop hydrogen as a fuel source.

That's the long game, of course.

For now, the Trudeau government must also deal with the challenge here at home: preventing the fate of Keystone XL from becoming the dominant issue in Canada-U.S. relations that it wasthe last time a Democrat was in the Oval Office and Joe Biden was his vice president.

• Listen to CBC Radio's The House: Biden's first week, Payette's last