REGINA -- Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall says he has landed meetings with two members of Donald Trump's cabinet next week, including the U.S. president's point man on NAFTA.
Wall is scheduled to be in Washington Monday through Thursday and says he will sit down with Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, the man tapped by Trump to deliver on a promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Wall also said he has a meeting with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt.
Wall said he will address issues important to his province, such as carbon capture.
Carbon capture entails catching the carbon emissions from a coal plant or another source and injecting the gas underground for permanent storage or use in speeding oil production.
The Boundary Dam coal power station near Estevan, Sask., has been using carbon capture and storage technology for about two years -- possibly the world's first commercial-scale use of the technique.
"It strikes me that the new administration campaigned on clean coal," Wall said Thursday. "They should know that the longest-running demonstration project of an actual plant is in our country and so we have some know-how."
Wall also wants to address buy-America provisions on new pipelines that could limit the use of Saskatchewan-made steel pipe.
"We want to make the point that the United States actually has a trade surplus on steel so they need to be very careful about these protectionist measures."
Wall said he also intends to help the federal Liberal government forge closer ties with the Trump administration.
"I know they're upset perhaps in the U.S. about the trade relationship with some countries, but they need to remember that Canada is a different situation."
