Canada and the province of Ontario have jointly unveiled a C$8.7 billion (about US$6.2 billion) support package for the industries hardest hit by US tariffs, in the clearest sign yet that Ottawa is planning for a long trade fight rather than a quick settlement.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the plan on Wednesday. The package includes about $3.7 billion for steelmakers and $1.8 billion for automakers over five years, with $1.1 billion of the auto funding coming from the federal government. It also establishes a joint steel action fund, supports upgrading car production lines for connected and electric vehicles, and invests in roads and faster approvals to secure critical mineral supply chains in Ontario’s north. The new money builds on more than C$25 billion in federal assistance already directed to workers and businesses affected by the tariffs.
The trade damage is already measurable. Canadian auto exports to the United States have fallen by more than 10%, while US exports to Canada have dropped by more than 20% — a decline Carney said hurts families and businesses on both sides of the border. “US tariffs have upended a trade bargain that’s existed for decades,” he said. “Tariffs make both our industries weaker and reduce choice for our families.”
The human cost was underlined the same day, when US-owned steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs confirmed layoffs at its plant in Hamilton, Ontario. In a separate move on Thursday, Ottawa gave Cleveland-Cliffs 15 days to reverse planned job cuts at the former Stelco mill, warning that it could seek a court-ordered sale of the plant and impose daily fines if the company does not comply with employment commitments made when it bought the facility.
Diplomatically, there is little sign of a thaw. Carney confirmed he spoke at length with President Donald Trump on Wednesday about trade, Iran and the Middle East, but signalled no breakthrough. Negotiations collapsed in August after Washington imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods, prompting Canadian retaliation. Ford was blunt about the longer-term damage to the relationship. “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,” he said.
Ontario is Canada’s manufacturing heartland, and its car and steel plants were built around frictionless cross-border trade — parts routinely cross the border several times before a vehicle is finished. That integration, once the industry’s great strength, is now its exposure. The package’s logic is to buy time: keep plants and workers in place, modernise production, and develop alternative supply chains and markets — including a push to deepen trade ties with partners such as Türkiye, where Carney travelled this week — while the two countries’ political relationship is rebuilt, or not.
Sources:
CGTN — https://news.cgtn.com/news/2026-10-22/Canada-and-Ontario-unveil-C-8-7-billion-package-to-counter-US-tariffs-1RrjHrEcD9S/p.html
Tert.am — https://tert.am/en/news/2026/10/22/Canada/4287742
Leave a Reply