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Alberta’s minister of economic development has an ultimatum for the government of Saskatchewan. And a deadline.

“Brad Wall needs to smarten up,” Deron Bilous told reporters Wednesday. “We’re giving him one week to kill this ridiculous restriction or we’ll be taking him to court.”

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Them’s fighting words. But then, it was Saskatchewan that fired the first shot in this latest trade war between the two rival provinces.

Wednesday morning, you see, Saskatchewan’s ministry of highways and infrastructure banned all vehicles with Alberta licence plates from any new Saskatchewan public infrastructure projects.

“New contracts awarded by the ministry will require suppliers to ensure that no vehicles displaying Alberta licence plates are present on ministry-funded work sites,” said the release from the Wall government. “This will include contractors, sub-contractors, consultants and workers. Ministry staff will enforce the contract provision through job-site monitoring.”