Alberta has obviously done nothing to cause this sudden trade drama with the U.S., and is probably not in much of a position to do anything to resolve it.

But that’s not to say that we’re powerless to address Alberta’s competitive position and try to remain as attractive an investment jurisdiction as possible. Between tax reform in the U.S. and concerns that this trade dispute might affect access to the U.S. market, there is much to worry about.

Economic Development and Trade Minister Deron Bilous spoke to reporters last Friday, but offered little beyond his support for Ottawa’s retaliatory tariffs and a commitment to continue to meet with and listen to Alberta industry and business leaders.

That’s all well and good, but it’s disheartening that there’s been so little from the federal government or the province when it comes to finding ways of strengthening our competitive position.

And for Alberta, a logical place to start would be revisiting the rash decision to increase our corporate tax rate.

As the Calgary Chamber of Commerce pointed out last week in its own recommendations to government, the answer isn’t retaliatory – and costly – tariffs, but rather addressing “policies and regulations that are hindering Canada’s competitiveness and ability to compete for global capital investment.”

We are falling behind in that regard. As Jack Mintz from the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy has pointed out, the U.S. average corporate tax rate is now 26 per cent, compared with 27 per cent in Canada.

In Texas, for example, the rate is 21 per cent, versus a combined rate of 27 per cent (15 per cent federal, 12 per cent provincial) here in Alberta.

Raising the corporate tax rate was one of the first orders of business for the NDP government three years ago, but it’s really hard to see what that accomplished. Not that the policy had much of a goal in the first place, beyond the vague political elusion of making corporations pay their fair share.

One would expect that an economic downturn would have a negative impact on all tax revenues, which is indeed what happened. But even with the recession in our collective rear-view mirror, and with rebounding resource revenues, the NDP’s tax increases are still not adding much to provincial coffers.

The government’s year-end financial update for 2017-18 shows that corporate tax revenues were $470 million below what was forecast in the budget (it was a $402-million shortfall for personal income tax revenue).

But the increase didn’t just hurt businesses and our competitiveness – it hurt consumers, too. A pair of studies released last year by the School of Public Policy found that households bore the biggest brunt.

Researchers calculated that the corporate tax increase represented an $830 annual cost to the average two-income household – a higher number than even the average household carbon tax bill.

That carbon tax is another policy that is eroding our competitive advantage, and it’s unfortunate that we’re not looking to use it as an opportunity to strengthen that advantage elsewhere.

The NDP used some of that revenue to reduce the small business tax rate from three to two per cent. Making the carbon truly revenue neutral and introducing a corresponding reduction in corporate taxes would go a long way in the current environment.

Unfortunately, however, there’s no evidence indicating that the NDP has had any sort of a rethink on corporate taxation, despite the obvious contradiction in its boasting of the benefits of the small business tax cut.

There’s an obvious opening for the United Conservative Party, if it’s prepared to grab it.

Corporate tax reductions might not make for good retail politics, however, and the UCP is likely content to simply campaign on scrapping the carbon tax.

We should always be alert to whether our competitiveness is about to be eroded. Given what’s transpired over the past six months in the U.S., that alert should be blaring.