QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Internal Trade
Trade Tariffs
February 24, 2026
Minister, thank you for being here. As you know, the sectoral tariffs have had a significant impact on workers in the auto, steel, aluminum and softwood lumber sectors. Of course, these sectors have been devastated and remain so. We have seen the loss of auto plants that have been idle in Ontario.
The bigger question I have is on the context of our engagement around the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, or CUSMA — I would not want to call it “renegotiation” because that’s not what it is supposed to be. It’s a renewal of the agreement. Is the government priority to seek to eliminate these tariffs as soon as possible given the fundamental impact they have had on workers and communities across this country?
Senator, you have much experience in representing workers in this country. You have identified sectors of our economy — steel, aluminum, automobiles and softwood lumber — that are critical for Canada’s GDP. Thousands of skilled — and, in most cases, unionized — workers earn their living in communities big and small across the country. Of those sectors, some provinces are more dominant in particular sectors than others. I come from a province where the softwood lumber industry is critical to communities across the province and across the country. We believe that the priority is to bring relief with respect to these sectoral tariffs. And you said it well, senator. It’s not a renegotiation of the CUSMA agreement. It’s not 2016 again. It’s a review that was built into the agreement, six years from the date of it coming into force. It’s July of this year.
It’s not a chapter-by-chapter renegotiation. We hope that, as part of that review, because we believe it’s in the American economic interest for American consumers and workers, that we can get to a position — working with our Mexican friends, American business organizations, American business leaders and groups representing American workers — where these tariffs can be adjusted downward precisely as part of that review.
Minister, the government has certainly shown a commitment to continuing to protect these sectors. They are vital to our industrial economy. Last week, we announced an industrial strategy in this country. How are we going to utilize our broader exports, the internal creation of new markets and new development of our military industrial strategy to ensure we can re-employ these workers in sectors that have been devastated by these impacts?
Thank you, senator, for highlighting the announcement the Prime Minister and some of my colleagues made around Canada’s Defence Industrial Strategy last week, at a time when Canadians want the Government of Canada to increase its defence spending to meet our North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, commitments. We must do so in a way that brings maximum benefit to Canadian workers and Canadian industries.
I think the Prime Minister said the priorities would be to build, partner and buy. Let’s build the high-quality equipment that the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces need here in Canada. Let’s partner with like-minded countries that want to build that with us. Ultimately, the third recourse would be to buy if we haven’t been able to build or partner. That might be an example.
