Melanie Joly unveils $1.5-billion tariff relief for manufacturers
melanie joly announced $1.5-billion in tariff relief for Canadian manufacturers on Monday, pairing the federal package with a new $1-billion Business Development Bank of Canada program. The support is aimed at companies caught in recent U.S. tariff changes on steel, aluminum and copper, with loans designed to give viable businesses faster access to cash.
Joly said the government is responding to a trade fight that is already landing inside Canadian factories. At a press conference at Les Ateliers Beau-Roc dump truck manufacturing facility in Vars, Ont., she said, “We’re in a trade war. We’re on the front lines, and the goal is to protect workers and actually keep companies afloat.”
BDC loans for metal exporters
The new BDC program will extend no-interest and low-interest loans to industries that manufacture and export products containing steel, aluminum or copper. The loans will run for three years, from $2-million to $50-million, with no interest in the first year and very low rates in years two and three. Repayment will be due at the end of the third year.
The financing is meant to provide rapid liquidity to viable businesses facing significant economic challenges. That matters most for manufacturers whose products fall inside the tariff-hit categories and now face higher costs as they sell into the U.S. market.
U.S. metal tariffs hit Canada
The federal package follows changes to existing U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum and copper on April 6. In April, the U.S. began levying a 25-per-cent tariff on the entire value of imported derivative goods made of steel, aluminum and copper, a category that includes hundreds of products. Those levies have deepened the pain for many Canadian businesses that depend on cross-border manufacturing and sales.
Asked whether she believed the U.S. tariffs would ever be removed, Joly replied, “I don’t know,” and added, “These decisions will be taken south of our border.”
David Eby presses Ottawa
British Columbia Premier David Eby criticized the package on Monday, saying softwood lumber was left out. “Everybody woke up this morning to the news that the federal government is allocating $1.5-billion for tariff affected industries,” he said. “So naturally, I flipped eagerly to find the page on softwood lumber, and unfortunately found that, yet again, softwood lumber has been left off the list as a tariff-affected industry,” he said.
He added, “I don’t know what it’s going to take, really, to get the bureaucrats and the ministers in Ottawa to recognize that softwood lumber employs more people in Canada than steel and auto parts combined.” Ottawa is in conversation with the forestry industry about future aid, leaving that sector watching for whether its case is folded into the next round of support.
