Federal ministers are expected to announce details of the government’s plan to support workers and businesses as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threat continues to loom over the Canadian economy.
Steven MacKinnon, Mary Ng and Rechie Valdez — the ministers of labour, international trade and small business — are announcing the details at a news conference in Ottawa on Friday afternoon.
In a partial climbdown on Thursday, Trump said he is pausing tariffs on some Canadian goods until April 2, offering a reprieve from across-the-board 25 per cent tariffs.
In response, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Canada would delay its second round of retaliatory tariffs, worth $125 billion, until April 2. That’s when Trump’s batch of “reciprocal” tariffs is due to be imposed on countries around the world.
Widespread U.S. tariffs would have a devastating effect on the Canadian economy, with experts saying it would lead to hundreds of thousands of job losses and wreak havoc in key sectors such as Ontario’s auto industry.
American tariffs on all steel and aluminum are still due to come into effect next week. Canada is the leading exporter of both metals to the U.S.
Friday’s news conference is scheduled to start at noon. You can watch it live on this page.
More to come.
