Canada’s provincial leaders urged Prime Minister Mark Carney to back new oil pipelines , electricity grids, critical mineral mines , ports and railways at a meeting on Monday meant to identify “nation-building” projects to be fast-tracked.

The meeting is a first step toward Carney fulfilling his campaign promise to reduce Canada’s overwhelming reliance on the United States as an export market by boosting the domestic economy and finding new trade partners.

“The coming weeks and months will be critical,” Carney said in his opening remarks at the meeting, taking place in the western prairie city of Saskatoon, Sask.

Carney said Canada still aims to ease trade tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump , but in the meantime it must scrap internal trade barriers and build national-s

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