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OTTAWA \u2014 The federal government is being accused of creating an uneven playing field in Canada\u2019s shipping industry, and critics claim the Prime Minister\u2019s Office is unwilling to rectify it.<\/p>\nPosted on March 10, 2026<\/p>\n
OTTAWA \u2014 The federal government is being accused of creating an uneven playing field in Canada\u2019s shipping industry, and critics claim the Prime Minister\u2019s Office is unwilling to rectify it.<\/p>\n
Later this spring, Ottawa is expected to launch a federal subsidy program to help reduce the cost of shipping lumber and steel between provinces by 50 per cent. But the subsidies \u2014 promised by Prime Minister Mark Carney back in November \u2014 will only go to rail companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe support this initiative to give a boost to those Canadian industries. But what we were asking was for parity because many destinations and commodities, only maritime transport can handle that,\u201d said Etienne Duchesne, business development project manager at Degsgagn\u00e9, a maritime shipping company based in Quebec.<\/p>\n
He said officials with Transport Canada were receptive to their plea, but they were referred to the Prime Minister\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision apparently came from (PMO), and there seemed to be a difference,\u201d Duchesne said, in French.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Transport Canada\u2019s side, there seemed to be an openness. But within the Prime Minister\u2019s Office, we\u2019re reading between the lines that there isn\u2019t, and that (the subsidies) will only be for rail and not for maritime shippers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister\u2019s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
In the House of Commons recently, Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois MP Claude DeBellefeuille said the government was creating \u201cunfair competition between rail transportation and marine transportation,\u201d putting jobs and supply chains at risk.<\/p>\n
In a letter to Transport Minister Steve MacKinnon, DeBellefeuille said Ottawa\u2019s decision to favour rail over maritime contradicts a declaration under the Transportation Act, which says the government can\u2019t favour \u201cany particular mode of transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand why maritime transport is being ignored, given that it is a strategic and essential interprovincial mode of supply chain transportation, and that Transport Canada\u2019s mandate is precisely to promote an integrated transportation system,\u201d DeBellefeuille wrote on Feb. 26.<\/p>\n
Speaking with The Canadian Press, DeBellefeuille said by favouring one transportation method over another, the government is diminishing the maritime shippers\u2019 competitiveness. Duchesne said the move will cost his company millions of dollars.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we don\u2019t understand is there seems not to have been an analysis on the part of the government that maritime shippers already ship steel interprovincially,\u201d DeBellefeuille said in French.<\/p>\n
Carney announced the measures in November, saying Ottawa would work with CN and CPKC and provide government funding to discount freight rates for steel and lumber by half.<\/p>\n
Carney said the move was to help foster domestic supply chains to mitigate the impact of United States tariffs on Canada\u2019s steel and lumber sectors. Those tariffs have been at 50 per cent since June.<\/p>\n
In 2024, 75 per cent of Canada\u2019s exports \u2014 and 90 per cent of its lumber, aluminum and steel exports \u2014 went to the U.S. Almost half of Canada\u2019s steel goes to the U.S. in a typical year, but those exports were down 24 per cent annually last year.<\/p>\n
And while the government plans to provide funds directly to the rail companies, DeBellefeuille said it should be up to companies who need steel and lumber shipped to decide what mode of transportation to use.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhichever offers the best service at the best price. It\u2019s not up to the government to choose one mode of transportation over another,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Duchesne said companies like his also serve parts of the country rail can\u2019t reach.<\/p>\n
Nunavut doesn\u2019t have any rail lines into the territory, where construction costs are already higher than in the rest of the country. The territory\u2019s premier said while his government supports measures to help Canada\u2019s steel and lumber sectors, Nunavut has raised concerns about the subsidy program only applying to rail shipments.<\/p>\n
Still, there\u2019s been no response from Ottawa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just want to be put on a fair playing field in terms of any subsidies or supports to reduce the cost of transport,\u201d Nunavut Premier John Main told The Canadian Press.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that the North is on their radar, and we have been encouraged by just the amount of attention that the North is getting. We\u2019re more than willing to engage and to offer suggestions or ways that this program could be made equitable and bring Nunavut into the fold.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the measures were announced in November, The Canadian Press asked Carney whether Ottawa would extend the subsidies to the territories.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe short answer is the rail subsidy theoretically would extend to the North, but practically doesn\u2019t,\u201d Carney said at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s lots of issues with transport costs for the North, and one of the things that we\u2019re doing is looking where are the biggest areas where we can reduce.\u201d<\/p>\n
(C) The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Posted on March 10, 2026 OTTAWA \u2014 The federal government is being accused of creating an uneven playing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-526946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526946","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=526946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}