LISTEN | Interview with Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu:
As It Happens9:00Canada ‘can’t afford’ to wait for Trump to be reasonable, says jobs minister
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday that Canada is prepared to return to the negotiating table whenever the U.S. comes with the “right attitude.”
But Jobs and Families Minister Patty Hajdu says Canada can’t afford to wait.
The federal government has allocated $7.5 billion in funding to help workers and employers weather the trade war. The new measures included easier access to Employment Insurance for affected workers, and a range of loan programs for businesses.
That, she says, will give Canadian business owners the time they need to adjust to the new economic reality and become less reliant on the U.S. as both countries impose 50 per cent tariffs on each other’s goods.
Hadju spoke to As It Happens guest host Paul Hunter. Here is part of their conversation.
Minister, a lot of Canadians are feeling, I think rightly, a lot of anxiety right now. Do you think these new measures will be enough to ease their minds?
I think these new measures go a long way to sending … a really strong signal to small- and medium-sized employers who will be predominantly hit by this new round of tariffs that we have their backs, too.
And not just the employers, but the employees, their workers that keep those businesses alive and thriving.
This package is designed … not only to help with the liquidity for businesses, but also there to help businesses hold on to their talent and, ultimately, in a worst-case scenario be there for employees that lose their jobs.
WATCH | Canada announces trade war support funding:
Canada unveils $7.5B in tariff support for workers, businesses
Industry Minister Mélanie Joly announced $7.5 billion in support to help workers and businesses weather the 50 per cent U.S. tariffs being imposed on $27.6 billion of Canadian goods. The package comes on top of the nearly $25 billion in tariff support implemented over the past 18 months, the federal government said in a statement.
Are you essentially saying … to Canadians that they should be prepared to lose their jobs?
What I’m saying to Canadians is that we’re not waiting to be prepared to support Canadians who lose their job.
Ultimately, the Canadian economy is still quite strong and we’re seeing a lot of activity in a variety of different sectors. But we all know these tariffs are going to disproportionately impact various sectors and various businesses.
Some businesses are going to be able to pivot. Some businesses have already begun that work. Many businesses haven’t waited to find new products or new markets, new partners.
But, in some cases, some businesses are very small and reliant on the United States. And if there are situations where a business just cannot keep their doors open, we want to make sure those employees are well supported not only with Employment Insurance, but with the opportunity to access training and to be able to land new jobs in other sectors.
Minister of Finance and National Revenue François-Philippe Champagne speaks at a news conference on Canada’s response to U.S. tariffs, at a roofing company in Ottawa on Tuesday. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
There’s a recent analysis by the University of Calgary, which puts it as Canada potentially losing as many as 87,000 jobs because of the latest U.S. tariffs. I mean, do you anticipate those numbers? And if so, can Canada afford to pay for supports on the scale that may well be required here?
I think Canada cannot afford to wait. And, in fact, the prime minister has said — and so has, most recently, our minister of finance — that we’re in an excellent fiscal position to be able to support employers, to support employees and to make sure that we have what we need to get through this difficult time.
Besides the support, there are these retaliatory tariffs that your government introduced today on a range of U.S. imports. But just as Americans ultimately foot the bill for Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods, Canadians will have to pay for these if they choose or need to buy them. So how should people expect this to affect their cost of living?
No one wants to impose tariffs, at least no one should want to impose tariffs, because you’re absolutely right, that increases the cost and it decreases the choice for Canadians. So we do so very reluctantly. But we also do so with a resolve that we are going to stand up for Canadian companies and Canadian employers.
At the end of the day, we need to make buying Canadian the most preferential for Canadians. And in fact, we’re doing something I think Canadians expect us to do, because they’ve been doing it since the beginning of this tariff war, since the beginning of this economic aggression. They’ve been standing up for each other. They’ve been intentionally choosing Canadian products, Canadian vacations, Canadian manufacturers to the degree possible. And so we believe that this is the appropriate measure to take to protect our Canadian employers.
Conservative Party leader Pierre Poillievre has been asking Prime Minister Carney to release the details of what your government walked away from on Friday night…. Given the sacrifices Canadians may ultimately have to make, should they be afforded more clarity on what was on the table last week?
I think that the terms of the proposed agreement and the changing terms of the proposed agreements have been pretty widely publicized. In fact, more publicized than many trade agreements, in fact, I would say any trade agreements that I’ve seen in the time that I’ve been a politician over the last 11 years. And so that transparency has been clear.
We’ve been working with stakeholders. We’ve been working with industry. We’ve got labour partners. We’ve got politicians of all stripes on advisory committees. This has been an all-hands-on-deck moment to negotiate with the United States.
LISTEN | Conservative shadow minister for U.S.-Canada relations on As It Happens:
As It Happens7:38Release details of scuttled trade deal, says Conservative critic
Conservative MP Shuvaloy Majumdar says Canadians are being asked to make tremendous sacrifices in the trade war with the United States, and they deserve to know why. Majumdar, the Conservative shadow minister of U.S.-Canadian relations, spoke to As It Happens guest host Paul Hunter.
The prime minister said yesterday that Canada is prepared to return to the negotiating table when the U.S. comes with the “right attitude.” Today, the American president was musing about renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.” Point being, this is not a man whose attitude seems like it’s about to change. So realistically, how long are you expecting Canadians to have to live with this new reality?
I think the question is, you know, how quickly is the Canadian economy adjusting to selling to other markets? Like, we cannot control what the president of the United States will say or do. But what we can control is the support that we provide employers. And, indeed, employers themselves, the actions that they take to pivot to new markets, new products and new ways of doing business. And we’re there as a federal government to support that work.
Finding new markets doesn’t happen overnight, though.
It doesn’t, but I will tell you that there are many, many companies across this country that have been working diligently, not just to find new markets abroad, but to work with the Canadian government on projects that allow them to utilize their Canadian products in some of the major work that we’re doing in defence, in infrastructure.
There are opportunities all across this country. And that is a part of our economic plan to build strong here at home, and utilize Canadian companies and Canadian products to do so.