Photo credit: CBC
The federal government and Ontario governments are putting billions of dollars on the line to help bolster the province’s key sectors – steel, critical minerals and auto manufacturing – as they continue to manage the fallout of tariffs from the United States.
The Canadian Press reports that Prime Minister Mark Carney said the $8.7-billion plan goes hand-in-hand with changes the Liberal government is making to speed up project reviews and push forward major projects, which will create massive demand for critical minerals and manufacturing capability.
“More jobs, more opportunity, more prosperity, more sovereignty, so we can live our lives as we choose,” he said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, standing alongside Carney during the announcement in Ottawa on Wednesday, called the plan transformative.
Ford said it’s clear the Canada-US relationship has changed permanently.
“No matter what happens in the midterms, no matter who sits in the White House, we’re not going back to the way things were, and we need to plan accordingly,” he said.
The plan includes a new steel action fund, with $3.5 billion in funding from Canada and $1.7 billion from Ontario over five years, to help steel companies expand the types of products they make.
Canada is spending billions more on defence procurement over the next several years. Protectionist policies brought in after the US imposed tariffs on Canadian steel are also expected to boost demand.
“At present, our steel companies rely on the auto sector. In the future, pipes, rail, ports, defence will be increasingly important sources of demand,” Carney added.
He said the funding is expected to protect 100,000 jobs in the sector and comes with a pledge to ramp up protections against foreign steel dumping through stronger border enforcement and other measures.
The move to protect jobs comes as the clock ticks down toward a deadline for the US-based owners of Stelco to respond to Industry Minister Melanie Joly, who wrote to them last week to demand they uphold job commitments made when they bought the Ontario company.
