Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette has now told Bloomberg that the Canadian province's government is open to reconsidering two major energy infrastructure projects it had previously rejected.

TC Energy Corp.'s Energy East pipeline, which would have transported western Canadian crude oil to refineries in eastern Canada, was mothballed in 2017 due to regulatory hurdles and fierce political opposition in Quebec. A separate proposal, known as GNL Quebec, to build a liquefied natural gas pipeline and export terminal in the Saguenay region was rejected by both federal and provincial authorities on environmental grounds.

There is another way

Both would still be rejected if they were submitted today under the same conditions, but if they were improved, Charette said, "these are projects that could be accepted."

Trump's threats to impose sweeping tariffs on U.S. imports of Canadian goods have changed the political landscape in Canada. Trump has also repeatedly stated that he believes Canada should become a US federal state - an idea that polls show is opposed by a large majority of Canadians.

An Ipsos poll released shortly before Trump's inauguration found that 80 per cent of respondents would "never" vote in favour of Canada becoming part of the US.

Is the game changing?

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, who is from Quebec, told a business audience in Montreal that Trump's threats could change the way Quebecers think about fossil fuel projects. "It's a question that people here have to ask themselves," Joly said.

And, "At the same time, we have environmental goals. We need to reduce our C02 emissions. I'm very, very interested to know: Does what's happened in the last few days change the game?"