OTTAWA — Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney will roll out new measures Wednesday to support Canada’s steel and auto sectors hard hit by the tariff war, the Star has learned.
The two leaders, who will be joined in Ottawa by their respective finance and industry ministers, are expected to outline a support package that one source said is not aimed at any one particular company, but rather at supporting industries and workers trying to get through a painful transition while the Canadian government accelerates its trade diversification agenda.
The measures are expected to also support critical minerals, according to the source, who the Star agreed not to identify because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the announcement. Ontario has wanted the federal government to help its push to develop strategic minerals such as those deposits in northern Ontario’s “Ring of Fire.”
The insider would not specify the value of the total package, which comes ahead of a Nov. 5 federal budget, saying only that it will be cost-shared between the federal and provincial governments, with the federal money described as a mix of “new” and previously budgeted funds.
Ford and Carney are expected to announce new liquidity supports for companies to draw on, as well as new advisory task forces to “help inform government policy moving forward,” the source said.
The source said the government is seeking to provide a bridge for sectors currently in a transition while the Carney trade diversification plan takes hold or until the industry can adapt to or take advantage of more domestic demand.
Canada has already tightened the rules around volumes of foreign imports with what’s called tariff-rate quotas that limit how much steel, for example, can enter Canada before stiff levies are imposed — in an effort to support the domestic industry.
But as companies like Stelco, owned by U.S.-based Cleveland-Cliffs, continue to close production here and move manufacturing to the U.S., and the government talks tough, it also recognizes Canadian sectors need more help.
The Prime Minister’s Office refused to comment.
Wednesday’s announcement comes after Ford signalled last week that Canada must gird for the long haul because the “relationship with the United States has changed permanently” and tariffs may be here to stay.
In a major speech to 1,200 people at the Empire Club of Canada on Oct. 13, Ford said he would continue to work in lockstep with Carney to fend off the economic threat posed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Our plan to protect Ontario is fortifying our industrial base including our auto, steel and manufacturing sectors,” he said.
The premier said the goal was to “build and unleash the growth-ready sectors of the future: critical minerals, nuclear, data centres and artificial intelligence, defence industries, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and agri-food and food processing.”
“Ontario is blessed with a massive supply of critical minerals needed to make everything from the cellphone in your pocket to the latest in cutting-edge defence equipment and the MRI machines that may end up saving your life,” said Ford.
“The critical mineral deposits in the Ring of Fire region alone will add $22 billion to Ontario’s economy and create 70,000 jobs in every part of the province from northern mines to factory floors,” he said.
“And the best part is President Trump can’t do a thing about it.
It’s entirely up to us — as long as we get out of our own way and get building.”
Speaking Tuesday at a conference in Gatineau, across the river from Ottawa, U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra blamed the Carney government for inflaming cross-border trade tensions.
“From our perspective,” said Hoekstra, “we’re not in a trade war, OK. We’re negotiating some tariffs, OK? From our perspective, we haven’t ruptured. We don’t view the relationship as ruptured. And I know that the Canadians look at it differently.”
