The President Donald Trump on Thursday blasted Canada’s new tourism bill, slamming the country for “very weak” measures that he said could cost the province millions of dollars.
“This is a very weak Alberta tourism program, the strongest in the world.
It’s very weak,” Trump said in a speech at the Calgary International Airport.
“And we’re going to be talking about that very very, very hard.”
The new legislation was introduced last week in the wake of a series of deadly earthquakes in Canada’s northwest and west, which are the worst on record.
The bill was quickly denounced by the Canadian government, and the Alberta government has vowed to introduce new measures to curb the risks from the earthquakes.
Trump’s comments come days after the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. revealed the first casualty of the quake, which killed nine people and injured more than 200 in the province.
Trudeau has said the province has taken several measures to limit the risks, including limiting the number of flights into and out of the province, banning all foreign climbers in the area and restricting access to areas where the quake occurred.
The new bill would also ban Canadian climbers from accessing the Mount Polley area, where the largest quakes have occurred.
“I think the strongest measure to prevent an earthquake in Canada is not to have any earthquake in Alberta,” Trudeau said at the airport, according to the CBC.
“I think there’s really no better way to prevent earthquakes than to have strong measures.”