Mr. Speaker, what is happening today goes way beyond a temporary trade spat. Since the U.S. administration's April 6 executive order, we have been seeing a methodical, systematic and deeply harmful hardening of the rules that our businesses were required to follow.
Up until yesterday, there was a logical rationale behind the already excessive steel and aluminum tariffs. Today, Washington chose to hit hard by imposing a flat tariff of 25% on the total value of products that contain more than 15% Canadian steel, aluminum or copper.
In other words, it is no longer just a tax on a raw material. It is a tax on our ability to process, innovate and export. It is a tax on our economic intelligence. The consequences are immediate. Products that were once protected by trade agreements are now being hard hit. According to available analyses, nearly a quarter of our U.S. exports are affected.
This figure of one-quarter needs to be taken seriously. It is a major blow to our economy. However, and this is where the problem lies, the government's response so far has been timid, if not downright inadequate. The recent economic statement included zero provisions, and the subsequent measures announced yesterday—while showing some awareness of the situation—essentially rely on businesses taking on additional debt when, in many cases, they are already stretched to the limit. They are being offered loans, when what they need is breathing room. They are being offered bureaucratic processes, when what they need is predictability.
Meanwhile, the reality is harsh. Orders will fall off, perhaps not today, perhaps not tomorrow morning, but in the coming months, once the current orders have beeen filled. At that point, it will no longer be a question of worrying. It will be a question of closures, job losses and entire regions on shaky ground.
The government needs to stop managing on a day-to-day basis. It must act with diligence, consistency and, above all, ambition.
We must start by protecting human capital. A temporary wage subsidy, modelled on what has been successfully implemented in times of crisis, would enable us to keep workers employed, maintain expertise and avoid a brain drain that would take years to recover from.
Next, we have to defend our strategic sectors: wood, aluminum, steel. These are not things of the past. They are the pillars of our industrial future. We need safeguards to counter unfair practices, whether from the U.S. or any other country.
We also have to take a smart financial approach. Buying back part of the countervailing duties that our softwood lumber producers are subject to, for example, is not an expenditure; it is strategic repositioning.
Above all, we need to stop trying to act as if buying local were optional. It must become a nation-building obligation. The government has to be an economic driver, not a spectator.
We also need to take concrete, pragmatic measures: simplify duty drawback mechanisms, offer centralized support to SMEs and, above all, develop a clear, complete and detailed picture of impacted businesses. Governing means understanding, and understanding requires measurements.
Finally, I will say it bluntly: Quebec is facing $8 billion in potential losses, but the response from across the aisle is only $1.5 billion. Numbers do not lie: The response is not serious, it is not enough, and it is not the way to protect our economy.
We have to tell it like it is. Donald Trump's executive order is a direct attack on SMEs in Quebec and Canada. It is a targeted, bold and deeply destabilizing attack. This is no mere trade dispute. These are trade-distorting tariffs imposed by a foreign country with no regard for the established rules.
The change in the way section 232 tariffs are calculated, which is now based on the full customs value of the product rather than just the metal content value, is exactly the type of foreign economic interference that the House has always spoken out against. We are talking about a rule that was imposed unilaterally, without notice, which distorts competition and penalizes those who made the right choice: to process here, invest here and create value here.
Let us make no mistake. These tariffs are being imposed in bad faith. To keep those measures in place, the White House is circumventing the very spirit of certain United States court rulings. In other words, the American President is governing as he pleases. In light of that, Ottawa's responsibility is clear: It must protect the Quebec and Canadian economies, protect their workers and protect their businesses. Yet what are we seeing? We are seeing Ottawa dragging its feet, hesitating, reacting, but always one step behind.
The Prime Minister was elected on a promise to defend our economy against this type of trade aggression; yet still today, he remains on the defensive, as though the situation were going to resolve itself. That is not going to happen. Things are only going to get worse. There are more tariffs now than there were when this government took office. While Ottawa is dithering, this is having very real consequences on the ground. Quebec, which is already more vulnerable to the United States' tariff policies than the rest of the country, is being hit extremely hard.
In the manufacturing sector alone, thousands of jobs have been lost over the past year. Entire industries, from forestry to certain segments of the cultural sector, have seen their employment rates decline significantly. With the new measures announced in April, the situation is only going to get worse. It is not just the metal being taxed now. It is the labour, the ingenuity, and the value added by Quebec and Canada. Every processed product becomes a target. Every company that has chosen to move upmarket is penalized. It is a perverse logic that rewards raw materials and punishes economic intelligence. We cannot accept that.
Supporting our motion is not a symbolic gesture. It is a necessary step in defending the very credibility of our trade agreements, including the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement. We negotiated these agreements in good faith, with the goal of creating a stable, predictable and equitable economic space. Washington has decided to change the rules midway through the game. This is not trade. It is commercial predation. Predation cannot be met with a wait-and-see attitude. It must be met with firmness. It must be met with concrete measures. It must be met by rising to the challenge.
On April 21 in the House, the leader of the Bloc Québécois asked the Prime Minister a very simple question: Will there be any transitional measures to support our businesses and workers affected by the new U.S. tariffs? The answer was clear: Yes, they will be in the economic update. However, the update was tabled on April 28, and it does nothing to address the urgent situation. I mean it when I say “nothing”. There are no targeted measures to counter the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump's administration. There is no structured response to support the businesses directly affected by the tariffs. There is no plan to protect our industrial base.
What we are presented with instead are improvised financial schemes, a $25‑billion so-called sovereign wealth fund, which is sovereign in name only and whose mandate could just as easily have been given to the Canada Infrastructure Bank, which, by the way, has not even used all the funds allocated to it. Meanwhile, the debt continues to grow, and with it the cost of servicing that debt, which will exceed $80 billion within a few years, far more than what is being transferred to the provinces for health care. I would remind the House that Ottawa is not complying with its own legislation.
However, there are proposals. We had some, we still have some and we will continue to have more. The Bloc Québécois came up with a series of concrete and realistic measures that were adapted to the crisis. Not only were these proposals ignored, but Ottawa did not even see fit to consult us. That says a lot. That is indicative of a government that governs in isolation. That is indicative of a government that confuses a parliamentary majority with not having to listen. Even more troubling, while our businesses are suffering, Ottawa is patting itself on the back for its revenues. More than $10 million was collected in tariffs, but just over half has been redistributed.
The remaining $4.5 billion is sitting idle in Ottawa's coffers while SMEs are forced to shut down and workers are losing their jobs. The tools are there and the money is there. What is missing is the political will.
To add insult to injury, the government continues to rely on outdated data to assess the impact of the tariffs. That is not good crisis management. That is improvisation. In an economic crisis, improvisation always negatively affects the same folks: workers, the regions and SMEs. Recognizing a problem is one thing, and that is great. That is probably the first step. Taking action, however, is another matter entirely.
At pivotal moments, the nations that come out on top are not those that wait for the storm to pass, but rather the ones that mobilize to confront it directly. While Canada may not be ready to do so, Quebec will do it every time. There are many solutions that just need to be implemented.
I hope the House will adopt today's Bloc Québécois opposition day motion. This is what it comes down to.
