The move means tough times for truck makers that trade vehicles and parts between Canada an the U.S. \u2014 like Edison Motors in Golden, B.C., whose president and founder Chace Barber called the new tariffs \u201cdisheartening.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762008849_229_default.jpg\")
Chace Barber is the founder and CEO of Edison Motors in Golden, B.C. He says he’s had to rethink which markets are viable in light of new U.S. tariffs on heavy duty trucks. (Submitted by Chace Barber)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s going to be a lot harder to sell into the U.S. right now,\u201d Barber told CBC News. He says a handful of his shipments will be hit by these tariffs, which could add upwards of $100,000 to the cost of the finished heavy-duty semi trucks it makes and sell.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can’t eat that cost; it has to go on to the customer. We’d be selling trucks for free or giving money away if we ate the tariffs.”<\/p>\n
Already trouble in trucking industry<\/p>\n
Compared to other industries, heavy truck and bus production is a small sector within Canada. In 2024, Canada exported about $5 billion worth of trucks to the U.S., and imported just under $9 billion worth, according to Canadian government data.<\/p>\n
But Dennis Darby, president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, says the losses still matter a lot to the 20,000 or so people employed in the sector across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not the same scale as the auto industry \u2026 but it has an effect in towns across the country,\u201d Darby said.<\/p>\n
Companies like Paccar, which makes big trucks in Quebec, already announced layoffs \u2014 175 jobs were cut in July<\/a>, and another 300<\/a> were announced earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s \u2026 very stressful for our members and their family,\u201d said Daniel Cloutier, Quebec director for Unifor, which represents workers at Paccar\u2019s plant in Sainte-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, Que. \u201cThere’s nothing at this moment that gives us a bit of hope. We just cross our finger[s].\u201d<\/p>\n Paccar didn\u2019t reply to CBC News\u2019 request for comment in time for publication.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for bus maker Prevost said the company did not anticipate any \u201cimmediate alterations\u201d to production but would continue to assess the tariff impact, while New Flyer also said it was also \u201ccarefully reviewing\u201d the new tariffs.<\/p>\n Duties already in place on steel and aluminum \u2014 the raw materials used to make many vehicle parts \u2014 will add another tariff layer impacting the sector, according to Saibal Ray, a supply chain management professor at McGill University.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ray points out that smaller manufacturing industries like truck production could suffer more than Canada\u2019s large industries as a result of tariffs. If a factory is making fewer trucks but its overhead costs don\u2019t change, that means each truck would be more expensive to make in that factory, according to Ray. He worries that could eventually drive some companies to close up shop in Canada, especially Quebec where truck and bus production is substantial.<\/p>\n \u201cThese tariffs and the associated problems might sound the death knell of some of the smaller industries,\u201d Ray said. “It’s very concerning for long-term … manufacturing in Quebec.”<\/p>\n LISTEN | In Asia, Canada hopes to fill a Trump-sized void:<\/p>\n Front Burner29:29In Asia, Canada hopes to fill a Trump-sized void<\/p>\n Because Canada does need trucks to transport things within the country, Ray says a \u201cBuy Canadian\u201d push could help bolster domestic truck and bus manufacturing. <\/p>\n That\u2019s Barber\u2019s hope at Edison Motors, too. Given that Canada\u2019s many resource-based industries like forestry and oil need heavy equipment, he says he\u2019s \u201c100 per cent confident\u201d that there\u2019s a market in Canada for the kind of trucks his company makes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe kind of had to rethink the way we’re doing our business,” he said. “Whereas we were looking at the whole North American market, I think it’s time that we just need to look at the Canadian market.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a fresh slate of tariffs on heavy trucks and buses takes effect, industry players say the companies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-254753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"truck\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762008850_872_default.jpg\")
Truck manufacturer Paccar has locked out its Ste-Th\u00e9r\u00e8se employees before. (Bloomberg)<\/p>\n