As state-level Republicans in Alaska work to affirm their close relationship with Canada amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and threats of annexation, an Alaskan senator has warned British Columbia’s premier that “you don’t want to mess with Alaska.”

Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan of the Republican Party made the remarks in an interview with an Anchorage radio station posted to his Facebook page.

During the conversation, which touched on topics ranging from energy development to Ukraine, Sullivan, one of two senators who represent the state in Washington, was asked about B.C. introducing legislation that grants the province the ability to levy new fees on U.S. commercial trucks heading to Alaska.

“I don’t know the premiers of the different provinces but it is a bit of a dangerous game,” Sullivan said before launching into his desire to repeal, either through the senate or by executive order from Trump, the Passenger Vessel Services Act. 

Under the act, foreign-built ships are not allowed to carry passengers between two U.S. ports without a stopover in a foreign country. The law is meant to protect U.S. shipping interests, much the same as the Jones Act which applies the same rules to cargo ships.

Many Alaska-bound cruise ships stop in B.C. — primarily Vancouver but also Nanaimo, Victoria and Prince Rupert — bringing in significant tourism revenue to the province’s economy.

Sullivan says he would like to see that rule repealed, noting it was done when COVID-19 restrictions were in place.

“Canada, you don’t want to mess with Alaska. And if you do, we are going to work hard on having our cruise ships bypass your ports, and that will help our economy tremendously,” Sullivan said. “They’re playing a dangerous game here, and I hope they back down.”

‘We can’t imagine Alaska without Canada’

B.C. Premier David Eby said he had no current plans to enact tolls but he wants the ability to do so should Trump escalate his actions against Canada.

“This is not something that we would do lightly,” he told reporters Friday. “We know the consequences for Alaskans are a big deal. We would expect them to respond in kind. Trade wars only hurt people.”

He hopes Alaskans worried about the fallout of a trade war will speak up.

“We need Alaskans to send a message to Donald Trump about how intertwined we are, about the connections between our economies,” he said.

That message was heard in Alaska’s state capitol building on Friday afternoon when Republican Rep. Chuck Kopp tabled a House Joint Resolution, Recognizing and honoring the relationship between Canada and Alaska, which he described as “an unqualified affirmation of the strong bonds of friendship, shared history, mutual defence and support that have bound our state to Canada over centuries.”

An almost identical Senate Joint Resolution is also moving through Alaska’s senate, sponsored by Republican Cathy Giessel, who has also spoken out against the trade war.

“The friendship, trust and affection that we hold for our Canadian neighbours extends to their identity as citizens of the sovereign nation of Canada,” Kopp said at Friday’s meeting, gesturing to a map of the two countries. “We can’t imagine Alaska without Canada.”

Kopp and several other speakers highlighted the joint effort to build the Alaska Highway from northern B.C. to Alaska during the Second World War, as well as the number of families and friendships that span both sides of the border.

Also invited to speak was Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai, the president of the Arctic Winter Games and several members of the border community of Skagway, Alaska. 

Skagway Vice-Mayor Deb Potter called on politicians to “think of Alaskans over your party,” and encouraged them to affirm the resolution, which is still moving through the house.

Kopp said he hoped the messages coming from Alaskans would be heard by the powers that be elsewhere in the United States.

“The temperature is rising between the countries based on economic reasons,” he said. “This resolution recognizes that relationships matter and are far more important than maybe the almighty dollar at times.”

More than 130 recently-fired federal employees in Alaska have applied for state unemployment benefits in recent weeks, amid efforts from the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency to slash the size of the federal workforce.

In Alaska, fired federal workers include meteorologists, fishery scientists, and national park rangers, among others, who say their departures will be acutely felt by Alaskans and visitors alike.

Director of Alaska’s Employment and Training Services Paloma Harbour told a legislative panel on Wednesday that 138 federal employees have applied for benefits in recent weeks, an increase from the typical average of 10 claims per month from federal employees.

The number is likely an undercount of the number of federal employees who have been fired in recent weeks — which has not been publicly shared by DOGE, Trump administration officials or Alaska’s congressional delegation — because some federal employees were ordered to leave their workplace so suddenly that they were unable to gather the necessary paperwork needed to file unemployment claims with the state.

“I still to this day do not have access to any of my employment documents as required to file for unemployment benefits by law,” said Charles Warren Hill, who was fired from his job working in Lake Clark National Park on Feb. 14, after two decades in the National Park Service.

Hill was one of three recently-fired federal employees who testified before the Alaska House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. All three said they had been told their skills no longer fit the needs of the federal government, despite having specialized knowledge and experience. All three said they would return to their jobs if given the opportunity.

Two federal judges on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to offer jobs back to all probationary employees who were fired last month from numerous departments, opening the window for Hill and others to get their jobs back.

Probationary employees are generally those in their first year of employment with the federal government. But in Alaska, numerous fired federal employees were considered probationary because they had recently been promoted, or because they had recently been hired in a permanent position after several years in seasonal or temporary posts.”

The order comes as the Trump administration is expected to take additional steps to shrink the number of federal employees, including through a reduction in force process currently underway.

‘Disproportionate impact here’

Alaska has more than 15,000 federal employees, of which over 1,300 are considered probationary, meaning they lack some of the workplace protections generally afforded to the federal workforce.

Brock Wilson, an economist with the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research, told lawmakers that federal employment plays a significant role in the Alaska economy.

Civilian federal employees in Alaska make up more than 3% of the workforce. Only Hawaii and Maryland have a greater percentage. The federal government employs more Alaskans than natural resources and mining industries, and its average salaries are among the highest in the state, according to data Wilson presented.

“Any reduction in federal employment in Alaska is largely going to have a disproportionate impact here compared to other states,” Wilson said.

Harbour, with Alaska’s Department of Labor, said Wednesday that though the federal employees who lost their jobs have been told they were let go because their skills and knowledge were not a fit for the federal government, the federal agencies later reported to the state that the employees had lost their jobs due to “restructuring.”

“If an employer says that an employee was discharged due to misconduct, the burden is on them to prove it to us. So they have to provide us with actual documentation. So far we have 138 active federal claims. From the agency responses, 95% have said ‘laid off due to restructure.’ The other 5% have just said ‘layoff,’” said Harbour.

“So we have not had anyone accused of being discharged for misconduct,” she added. “If we did, they would have to show that there was actually something they were doing wrong … Not just because they wanted to get rid of — because they were on probation and they could be let go.”

That means that unemployment insurance penalties would not apply — but also calls into question the reasoning given to employees for their termination.

Aaron Lambert was fired on Feb. 27 from what he called his “dream job” as a fishery management specialist in the Sustainable Fisheries Division of the Alaska Regional NOAA Fisheries office. Lambert said his termination email stated that his “ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the agency’s current needs.”

“This was a blatant lie,” said Lambert, who had studied fisheries and statistics at the University of Alaska Juneau and the University of Alaska Fairbanks and had developed new statistical models to predict fishery populations before he was hired.

Rep. Sarah Vance, a Homer Republican, asked fired federal employees to apply instead for state jobs. In doing so, she echoed a message from Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Trump ally, who encouraged fired employees to seek jobs with the state.

“We need great people to fill some of the positions so the state can provide services,” Vance said on Wednesday. The state has for several years contended with high vacancy rates that have hampered state services.

Lambert said he wants to return to his federal job, but had in the meantime been hired for a temporary position by a lab in Juneau where he previously worked, and would consider employment with the state.

“There are other jobs that are similar, such as biometricians for the state. However, they do pay about 40% less than what I was making, and it would take me about 10 years to get back to my salary I had a couple months ago,” he said.

Harbour said that the state has enough funds to pay unemployment benefits to fired federal employees — who must prove they are seeking alternate employment options to qualify. However, Harbour said the staffing at Alaska’s unemployment insurance offices is “at a very low level,” which could lead to delays in determining eligibility for impacted workers if the number of claims balloons.

‘Fisheries products in Alaska will suffer’

Alaska’s unemployment benefits rank near the bottom of the nation when taking into account average claim payments and cost of living, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor. Numerous fired workers have said that their termination would likely compel them to leave Alaska altogether.

The number of funded positions in Alaska’s unemployment insurance office is 163, down more than 10% from the number in 2018. But a large number of those are unfilled, as the office contends with “ongoing staffing challenges,” Harbour reported. The unemployment insurance office has 51 vacant positions across the state, Harbour said Thursday.

Fired federal workers told state lawmakers that their departures from the federal workforce could mean critical tasks entrusted to the federal government are abandoned. State and private organizations would not be able to step in every case, they said, leaving Alaska’s popular national parks with no one to take care of facilities, and leaving Alaska’s fishermen and oversight agencies with no data on which to base catch limits.

Andrew Dimond was recently fired from the Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Juneau.

Dimond was born in Juneau and planned to continue living in the community, after spending 20 years commercial fishing in Alaska and earning a degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

He has worked on fishery and environmental surveys for NOAA for nearly a decade — first as a seasonal survey technician, then as a temporary worker, and beginning in 2024 with a full-time, permanent job. He was 11 days from the end of his probationary period when he was terminated.

Dimond’s job was critical to annual longline surveys that provide data on groundfish species, and ecosystem surveys of the Bering Sea and Arctic, which provide data for chinook and chum salmon forecasts in the Yukon River, and pollock stock assessments.

“If these surveys don’t happen, fisheries products in Alaska will suffer. Stock assessment authors that don’t have the accurate information these surveys provide may be more conservative with their forecasting. This directly impacts the fishing industry,” Dimond said.

“I’m solely responsible for deploying complex electronic data collection systems which save tons of hours because you’re no longer hand-entering data that’s written on sheets,” he said. “That expertise that I’ve developed over nine years walked out the door with me when I was terminated.”

Dimond said he would take his job back if it was offered to him.

“I absolutely have confidence that at some point in the future I will be back at that facility. Whether it’s in two years, four years, or six years — I don’t know,” he said.

Lambert said he was hired in August, in part to help oversee a court-ordered federal salmon fishery in the Cook Inlet. He was also responsible for ensuring that the federal government responds adequately to fishery disaster declarations.

Lambert said he was “assured that because our office was already running lean” and “we facilitated incredibly important fisheries worth billions of dollars — that our jobs would surely be secure.” His firing came last month nonetheless, even as numerous other positions in the office remain vacant.

“As a result of my termination, there’s a possibility that the Cook Inlet stock assessment may not be conducted, risking that a newly court-ordered fishery may not proceed or proceed with outdated stock numbers,” he said.

Hill, who previously worked in Lake Clark National Park, said 20% of the Lake Clark park staff members were terminated. Those fired reside in Port Alsworth, a gateway community to the park with fewer than 200 residents, where other employment opportunities are virtually nonexistent. Without his job back, he said he would have to sell his Native land allotment and leave.

“There’s no longer anybody left there with any supervisory level experience,” said Hill. That could mean that roads, trails and facilities will no longer be maintained and fire and safety codes will not be followed. “All that’s left is literally our janitors and our laborers.”

“There’s nobody there in our administrative buildings to answer phone calls about visits to the park,” he said. “It’s really disheartening for a place I love.”

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Do you have additional information about actions involving the federal workforce in Alaska? Reach out to reporter Iris Samuels, Michelle Theriaut Boots or Sean Maguire via email at isamuels@adn.com, mtheriault@adn.com or smaguire@adn.com or via encrypted message on Signal at irissamuels.11, michelletheriaultboots.53 and SeanBMaguire.11. Reach editor David Hulen at dhulen@adn.com or via Signal at davidhulen.99.

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