Industry and Technology Committee on April 23rd, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Good morning, everybody.

Welcome to the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology.

We are continuing the conversation we began last meeting in an emergency capacity in relation to the impact that changes to section 232 tariffs are having on domestic industries here in our country.

This is a reminder to witnesses in the room that if you're using your earpiece and it's plugged in but not on your ear, please ensure that you place it on the sticker in front of you to protect the health and well-being of our interpreters.

I can confirm that the sound tests have been successfully completed.

We have three witnesses joining us for the first hour here, colleagues.

From the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, we have Keanin Loomis, who is joining us by video conference. From the Windsor Essex Chamber of Commerce, Ryan Donally is here as the chief executive officer. He's in the room here today. From the Saskatchewan Industrial and Mining Suppliers Association, we have Eric Anderson, who is the executive director.

Because I chair the government's prairie and north caucus, it would be probably inappropriate of me to not provide the floor to a fellow prairie colleague, so I'm going to give Mr. Anderson the opportunity to begin here, as a proud Saskatchewanian.

We look forward to hearing your testimony, sir. You'll have up to five minutes, at which point I'll then pass the floor to Mr. Loomis, followed by Mr. Donally.

The floor is yours, Mr. Anderson.

[Eric Anderson, Executive Director, Saskatchewan Industrial and Mining Suppliers Association]

Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the invitation to appear today to discuss the impacts of U.S. tariffs on Canada's metallurgical and advanced manufacturing sectors.

As you heard, my name is Eric Anderson. I'm the executive director of the Saskatchewan Industrial and Mining Suppliers Association, or SIMSA. The acronym's much easier to use. We represent more than 380 Saskatchewan companies that support the mining, energy and industrial sectors. Together, our members generate over $18 billion in annual sales and employ more than 36,000 people.

Our message is straightforward. Saskatchewan has what the world wants, especially when it comes to minerals and metals in advanced manufacturing. Canada is fortunate to have abundant uranium, potash, rare earth minerals and other critical resources, and Saskatchewan is home to many of them. Saskatchewan's advanced manufacturing and industrial companies are also hard at work innovating and building in the nuclear and defence sectors, and many more.

The supply chain companies I represent are essential partners in developing these resources. We work with the governments of Canada and Saskatchewan, indigenous partners and the private sector to help unlock economic potential.

We know first-hand how important the mining, critical minerals and advanced manufacturing sectors are to our economy. We are working to ensure our members and the people they employ can fully participate in and benefit from that growth. We want to do even more to help build a strong Canadian economy, a thriving mining sector and a more economically resilient country.

When it comes to CUSMA, we are aware of the ongoing discussions and the broader trade environment. Many of our member companies are closely engaged in their own sectors and are best placed to speak on the specific issues they face. At a broad level, our members support stability and predictability in any future agreement. We are optimistic an agreement will be reached, but we are concerned that companies that SIMSA members work for—the mining and oil companies—could be affected if there are impacts to exports to the United States and Mexico. If SIMSA's customers—the mining and oil companies—face higher costs or new barriers, it could trickle down through the supply chain and the impact would be significant for our members.

However, we are concerned about the impact of higher tariffs on our members and our supply chain. For example, several SIMSA members manufacture heavy mining equipment in Saskatchewan using local innovation and technology. If steel tariffs rise, that could increase their costs and make it much harder to sell that equipment into the United States. In some cases, those added costs could make contracts uneconomical.

We are also watching the risk of new tariffs. At present, CUSMA-compliant critical minerals are generally exempt from U.S. tariffs. If that were to change, there could be impacts across the supply chain. Those impacts are difficult to predict, but higher tariffs generally mean higher costs and greater uncertainty. There are challenges we face, but our members want to be part of the solution.

SIMSA's perspective can make our position stronger, and our voice matters. We urge the government to work with SIMSA and its members to ensure that supply chain issues and opportunities are included by groups, like the Major Projects Office, that are working hard now to make the Canadian economy stronger and more resilient.

I'm looking forward to sharing our perspectives with you today. Thank you again for the opportunity to appear. I look forward to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you very much, Mr. Anderson.

Mr. Loomis, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Keanin Loomis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Institute of Steel Construction]

Good morning.

Thank you to the chair and the committee for inviting me to present on behalf of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, representing one of the foremost sectors impacted by the U.S. section 232 tariffs.

Last week we held our day on the Hill and had the opportunity for our members from across Canada to meet with many of you. Thank you for your time then and for today's opportunity to further discuss policies to support our industry. Thank you as well for allowing me to do this from an Atlanta hotel room, where I'm attending the North American Steel Construction Conference.

CISC is Canada's voice for the steel construction industry, representing the steel manufacturers, fabricators, suppliers, constructors, engineers and architects who are building Canada's infrastructure with steel. As we were able to share with you last week, the steel construction sector directly employs 30,000 workers from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island and supports 100,000 jobs in total.

As of April 2, the U.S. government is tariffing steel melted and poured in its own country if additional work is done in Canada and then it is sold back into the United States. Now, the entire value of the product is being tariffed, not just the value of the steel. This further increases costs and challenges for our industry. Let me be clear: These measures also harm America's own self-interest.

For decades, we had established, reliable supply chains between our two countries that benefited businesses and communities on both sides of the border. The United States does not have the domestic supply and capacity to meet demand. Costs for primary and fabricated steel are rising in the U.S. as a result of the President's unilateral actions, just as they did in 2018. Lead times for projects are increasing rapidly. The U.S. is putting the entire North American steel industry at a disadvantage, while also performing the single greatest act of dishonourable conduct as neighbours, allies and business partners in our long-standing relationship. While they appear to be happy to make a deal with the devil, compromising long-held free market principles to fatten their profit margins, the harm in their encouragement of a megalomaniacal President will have long-term consequences.

The ever-shifting tariff policies, with no clear end in sight, have created significant instability for the sector and made it difficult to plan for future projects on both sides of the border. The U.S. is Canada's largest export market for fabricated steel, and the loss of this market has a substantial impact on the industry. Since the heightened measures were announced earlier this month, we've already heard from members that large contracts in the U.S. are now at risk.

We appreciate the many measures the government has enacted to support the steel sector and other impacted industries, including the formation of the steel task force, trade measures and the buy Canadian policy. As this committee reviews policies to support the industry, the CISC recommends doubling the 25% derivative surtax against non-FTA countries, applying the buy Canadian policy to all taxpayer-funded projects and considering introducing a steel investment and jobs fund.

As we are seeing in the prices of jobs we're bidding on, the current 25% derivatives surtax does not come anywhere close to levelling the playing field between the domestic fabrication sector and countries like China, who continue to dump steel into the Canadian market that is far below the cost of raw domestic steel. It's for these reasons that we recommend the government double the steel derivative tariff on non-FTA countries to 50%. This would be in line with the 50% tariff rate quota on non-FTA countries for primary steel. This measure will also support us in our long-term relationship building with the U.S., which wants to ensure that Canada is not a back door for dumped steel entering the North American market.

Our second recommendation is that our best growth market is our own, so CISC applauds efforts to support manufacturers through the buy Canadian policy. It is estimated that if the U.S. export market were entirely lost, our industry could lose between 3,500 to 5,200 jobs, including upstream and downstream employment effects. The potential job gains from replacing imports with domestic production would range from 10,700 to 16,700 jobs. Currently, the buy Canadian policy only applies to projects where the federal government is the procuring party. When the federal government provides funding to provinces and territories and municipalities for projects such as new schools or hospitals, the buy Canadian policy, or an equivalent provincial policy, should be applied as a requirement to receive federal dollars. The federal government should also work closely with the provinces and territories to align legislation, funding agreements and first ministers' commitments to establish consistent buy Canadian and local steel requirements on all taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects.

Our final recommendation, should we continue to face trade challenges, is to develop a fund via tariff revenues to finance retooling and capacity expansion, workforce training, R and D in advanced and low-carbon steel, and business development initiatives so that increased demand is met by Canadian production—not imports. This is a recommendation of last resort. Let me be clear about that. Our members just want to work, so we believe that implementing recommendations one and two should suffice on their own.

Once again, thank you to the committee for inviting me to appear on behalf of the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction. I look forward to answering any questions you may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you very much, Mr. Loomis.

Mr. Donally, the floor is yours for five minutes, sir.

[Ryan Donally, Chief Executive Officer, Windsor Essex Chamber of Commerce]

Thank you very much, Chair, vice-chairs and members of the committee.

I am here on behalf of the Windsor Essex Chamber of Commerce, representing over 40,000 employees in Windsor-Essex and 775 businesses.

I want to start with a very simple point. This is not a theoretical trade issue. This is an immediate industrial capacity issue. In a region like Windsor-Essex, my hometown, this means something very real. If this industry weakens, every household in the region will feel economic pain. The revised section 232 tariffs have national implications for jobs, growth, defence readiness, and Canada's resilience and long-term prosperity.

Why does this matter nationally? Windsor-Essex is one of the most intensive manufacturing regions in Canada. We have 48,800 jobs, so one in five employees in Windsor-Essex are in this industry. We have Canada's most intense and largest tool and die and mould cluster, valued at approximately $2 billion, with approximately 85% of that heading to the United States. Unemployment currently sits at about 8.5%, down from 11.2% in mid-2025. Manufacturing here in Windsor-Essex is not peripheral. It is foundational to the region and to Canada's economy.

What has changed? This is no longer a steel tariff. It's a tax on Canadian manufacturing. Our companies don't ship raw steel. They ship finished value-added products. What's being taxed now isn't just the inputs. It's labour, engineering and innovation. The impact is immediate. We're seeing tariff exposure multiply overnight. What used to cost a few thousand dollars is now in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars as tariffs. At that level, contracts don't adjust. They become unworkable. When contracts become unworkable, production decisions must follow.

The damage is not just at the end of the supply. It's upstream where the work begins. In Windsor-Essex, that means the machinery manufacturing industry. NAICS 333 represents 8,000 jobs across 188 firms, with average wages of nearly $80,000. Extrapolating that to Ontario, we're looking at 62,000 jobs. At the national level, it's 149,000. When you use standard economic multipliers of approximately three, it's 25,000 jobs in Windsor-Essex and a shocking 450,000 nationally. This is just one of the potential industry codes being affected.

This is where the issue becomes bigger than tariffs. The Windsor-Detroit corridor is one of the most integrated manufacturing regions in the world. For decades, our region and a large part of Ontario have been deeply integrated with purchasers, suppliers, colleagues and, oftentimes, family on the United States side of the border. Although this relationship is currently challenged, it's vital to recognize the deep and mutually beneficial ties our two countries have had and will continue to have.

Parts in this industry cross the border multiple times. That system depends on predictability. Right now, this is not predictable. A mutually beneficial trade deal with the United States allows for this predictability. Without predictability, if this continues, the results are straightforward. Production will shift, investment will follow and jobs will move.

At the same time, the Government of Canada has been clear about its priorities. Through recent defence and industrial strategic frameworks advanced by Prime Minister Carney, our country must—and I agree—rebuild domestic industrial supply, strengthen allied supply chains, reduce dependency on non-aligned offshore producers, and treat industrial inputs as strategic assets.

Here's the contraction: Section 232 tariffs are actively weakening the very upstream base those strategies depend on. The tooling and advanced manufacturing industry is not optional infrastructure. It is the enabling layer beneath defence manufacturing, automotive and EV production, aerospace components, energy, critical minerals and infrastructure projects. If we lose tooling capability, we do not reshore defence production, we do not control timelines, we do not control costs and we do not control security of supply. If we lose that capability, we lose more than production. We lose control of our national and economic security.

What we are asking for right now to support this industry is not a permanent resolution, it's a bridge. Reinstate a temporary blanket remission framework for the affected industries. Provide short-term cash-flow relief. Urgently resolve section 232 within the CUSMA framework. Ensure federal trade responses measure upstream impacts, not just finished goods.

I will close with the bottom line. Behind every number I've shared is a real decision being made as to whether they absorb the losses, walk away from contracts or move companies somewhere else. These are not large multinationals. They are Canadian manufacturers employing skilled tradespeople, engineers and apprentices across this country. These are Canadians working hard to build Canada strong.

We have a narrow window to act. If we do, we protect jobs, preserve industrial capacity and stay aligned with our long-term economic and security objectives. If we do not, this market will make the decisions for us. We built our economy getting this right, and we can't afford to get this wrong.

Thank you. I'm open to any questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you very much, Mr. Donally.

Colleagues, we'll enter our first round of questions.

Mr. Epp, welcome back to the industry committee. The floor is yours for six minutes, sir.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for appearing today.

Business hates uncertainty. That's why I think the sectors that are testifying today, and indeed the Canadian public, breathed a bit of a sigh of relief or had some confidence when they were promised by the Prime Minister that there would be a deal with the U.S. by last July, but here we are today, eight months later.

The plan now is for trade diversification away from the American markets. In fact, the Prime Minister has indicated that our relationship with the U.S. is a weakness. As further proof, in a flyer from the member for Ottawa Centre that landed in my mailbox this week, the U.S. isn't even highlighted under the heading of expanding Canada's trade partners.

I'll begin with Mr. Loomis.

Mr. Loomis, do you agree that our trading relationship with the U.S. is a weakness? How long would it take for your members to replace U.S. demand with alternative export markets?

[Keanin Loomis]

Thank you for that question, MP Epp, and it's good to see you again. Thank you so much for all your support for our industry.

Getting back to free trade with the U.S. is the most important thing that we can have as an industry. That's where we do all of our export work. Very little goes overseas. It's very difficult for us to see us doing any work overseas, given some of the protections that other countries have, including the European Union, which does a really good job of keeping foreign steel out of their projects, even if we have a free trade agreement. For us, we want to get back to doing that.

Steel is also very heavy, and that's the other aspect of not really being able to work in markets other than the U.S., so we want to get back to that. That's why I say it's really important.

However, there are more jobs to be gained if we protect our own domestic industry and we are able to ensure, especially on taxpayer-funded projects, that we are using Canadian steel and Canadian-fabricated steel. That's the most important aspect—that the value-added work be done here. If you're using Canadian steel, you're probably guaranteeing that all the value-added work will be done here in Canada as well. That's really important to us. There are a lot of opportunities to be gained by having our own market.

The private sector is also seeing a lot of jobs going overseas. We're seeing that happening primarily with the big projects, a lot of the resource projects and then a lot of the taxpayer-funded large projects here in Canada as well, such as bridge projects. When you're using a multinational engineering or general contracting company, that's where all the leakage is going in terms of jobs and work going overseas. It's really important for us, especially on taxpayer-funded projects, but it's also important for the private sector. We should be applying pressure to the private sector to be using Canadian steel and Canadian value-added work here.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

I have one more quick question, and it's for a short answer, please.

How long can your companies continue to operate under the current tariff regime before permanent cuts come, before closures?

[Keanin Loomis]

I would say that's something that's going to happen over the course of this year. Before this 10% levy on the total value, we were allowed to continue doing work in the U.S. as long as we were using American steel. Now, this is probably the single most harmful thing the United States has done over the last two years to our fabrication industry. I expect that we will have job cuts over the course of this year if we don't do the things we're recommending in terms of domestic procurement.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Can you plan six to 12 months ahead right now or not?

[Keanin Loomis]

No, it's hard.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

What's the urgency of a response from the government to the challenges you're facing right now?

[Keanin Loomis]

It's very urgent, absolutely. Our order books are not filling up, so we're running out of.... We're now getting to the jobs that we earned a couple of years ago, and we have had very few jobs added to our order books over the course of the last year. As I said, this newest move will cause even more harm to this industry.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

What's the single most important thing the government could do in the next 30 to 60 days?

[Keanin Loomis]

It would be to apply the domestic procurement policies to all federally funded projects; to encourage the provinces, where there isn't federal money, to do the same; and for the provinces to require the municipalities to also support domestic, buy domestic and fabricate domestic.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you.

I'm going to switch over to Mr. Donally.

I know that the downstream aluminum industry has faced some of the same challenges that the downstream steel manufacturers did. I know there were some short-term TRQs, tariff rate quotas, put in place for manufactured steel products coming in, but none of that came in for the aluminum industry.

Mr. Donally, can you comment on the effects specifically on aluminum and on some of the others that aren't protected by the dumping that's occurring from third party, non-market economies coming into the country?

[Ryan Donally]

I can't get too specific on it, but I can say that in the data package I provided to you, it very likely fits within the NAICS code 331, which has, again, significant impacts as it relates to this current tariff policy.

Business would like to always have an equal playing field, so if it is impacted from the steel perspective, the aluminum perspective should also be considered.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

To finish, I'm going to ask you the very same question. What needs to happen now for your members to stay viable, to be able to plan and to be able to survive?

[Ryan Donally]

It is vital that a free and comprehensive trade deal be established. To your point earlier, MP Epp, what's important as it relates to diversification is not just taking the pie and splitting it different ways.

You heard me talk about the relationship between Canada and the United States, and Windsor-Essex and Detroit. It's vital that we don't just take the pie and split it different ways with other countries. I would love to see the relationship with the United States continue and even grow, but also to diversify away from that. It's important that we have a bigger pie to share and not just take the same pie and split it different ways.

It's vitally important that everybody in this room hears that.

[Dave Epp, Conservative, Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thanks very much, Mr. Epp.

Ms. Gould, welcome to the industry committee. The floor is yours for six minutes.

[Karina Gould, Liberal, Burlington, ON]

Thank you so much, Chair.

Thank you to the Liberal members for allowing me to join them today.

I come from Burlington, Ontario, and steel and manufacturing are really important for us in the Burlington and Hamilton area. I read a report recently out of the University of Calgary that actually looks at the percentage of U.S. imports by province and how they're impacted by section 232 tariffs. In Ontario, 20% of our GDP is reliant on trade with the United States, and 60% of that trade to the U.S. is impacted by section 232 tariffs. Ontario is the most impacted province in the country when it comes to section 232 tariffs because we are big producers of steel, aluminum or value-added aluminum, as well as autos and auto parts, so I particularly appreciate my colleagues from Hamilton and Windsor for being here today.

Perhaps I'll start with you, Mr. Donally, because my question has to do with what you were talking about.

In Burlington and Hamilton, we have thousands of people who work in the steel and auto sectors. There are tens of thousands of people who are indirectly employed by those sectors. When I talk to manufacturers in my community, they are often family-owned SMEs, with upwards of 70% to 90% of their business in the United States, but they have chosen to stay in Canada.

Mr. Donally, what would help your members and companies like those in my riding that are so reliant on the U.S. market to diversify? Do you have some examples for us?

[Ryan Donally]

I briefly touched on it, but right now the industry is facing a 10% tariff on finished goods. My members—and I can speak to southwestern Ontario, specifically Windsor-Essex—recognize that within the next three to six months, they are going to face very dire cash-flow issues. That means, as I alluded to earlier, they're going to have to make decisions. Those decisions may be to close their shops, because many of the owners of these companies are in their fifties or sixties and are ready to close them up. They've been dealing with multiple challenges over the past decades. That being said, they are getting requests to move to the United States. That is a question that is out there, and it occurs quite regularly from some of the purchasers.

In order to maintain this industry, and likely the industries you're speaking about also, I do believe there is an immediate need for cash-flow support to make sure these companies continue to exist in six months to a year. I've had conversations, and I can say that people are looking to diversify, and many companies have done this already. It's not just auto. It applies all throughout the industry. They're looking to make those changes. They can't make those changes under this type of cost pressure, and this type of intense pressure. An immediate cash-flow reserve that helps support those industries when they ship that product across the border, for example, a bank account they could draw back against the cost of that tariff, would be vital.

I know multiple companies are working on becoming defence-certified, and there are multiple steps along the way, as I alluded to earlier. That's to grow their pie. That's to diversify their own portfolio. Diversification is vital.