There are a number of measures government officials on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border can take to increase energy security and reduce fuel costs, according to Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe.

Moe is currently on a six-day trip in the United States that began in New York and will end in Washington, D.C. to advocate for better energy security between the two countries and tout his province as a reliable commodities supplier.

One of the key steps is to eliminate barriers for businesses, he said.

“Remove some of the impediments in the regulations that are in place that are driving the cost of fuel. Largely, [there are] inflationary pressures in particular in North America are being driven by the cost of fuel -- and we can reduce that to the degree that we can -- by removing some of the impediments that are in place that are pushing that cost of fuel [up],” he told BNN Bloomberg in an interview.

With the price of oil surging, drivers are feeling the pain at the pumps and businesses are incurring higher input costs in the form of rising transportation costs, leading to rising consumer prices.

But in order to strengthen North America’s energy supply chains, Moe said getting oil to market is still a challenge.

“There are some restrictions with respect to transportation for example, the cancellation of the [Keystone XL pipeline] is an impediment in providing…true energy security to all North Americans,” he said.

However, he added that there are some “low-hanging fruit” energy assets that can be easily tapped to increase oil production in Saskatchewan and provide more energy to the U.S.

Moe pointed to other industries, such as Saskatchewan’s fertilizer and food sectors, that have built highly integrated and highly successful North American supply chains, which can be used as blueprints for the oil industry. 

“Sitting down and formalizing these conversations about how we are going to power North America and provide energy security today, and also how we are going to do that, you know, as we transition over the next decade or two into the future as well,” he said.

“We've done this in the way of food security … We need to have those very same, those very same conversations when it comes to energy security so we can keep that energy costs as low as possible for Saskatchewan, Canadian and North American industries.”