Canoes, cars, ice cream: London-area businesses face tariff turmoil

For the past few weeks at Nova Craft Canoe, sales director Steve Procunier has been paddling furiously. 

"With the tariffs hitting, we've had to do numerous trips to the States in order to get them to our dealers in time to beat the tariffs," he said. 

Since 1970, the company has built fibreglass and carbon-fibre canoes at its factory in east London. They build and sell about 2,000 canoes in a typical year and distribute them to retail dealers across North America and overseas.  

But since President Donald Trump took office, 2025 has been anything but a typical year for Nova Craft and any other local business that trades with the United States.

On Tuesday Trump's 25 per cent tariffs on most Canadian imports took effect. Ottawa has responded with counter-tariffs with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling the U.S. tariffs a "dumb" move that will hurt both countries. 

Monday at 6:30 p.m., Nova Craft had finished production on a batch of canoes for U.S. customers in a bid to get them over the border before the tariffs kicked in. By 9:30 p.m. the load of canoes was crossing the border in a trailer heading south.

The Trump tariffs took effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.

The U.S. market claims about 20 per cent of Nova Craft's sales. It's a customer base the company, which has about 40 employees, has nurtured carefully over the years. 

"We have good clients down there. I've known them for years, they've become good friends," said Procunier, who travels to the U.S. regularly to deliver canoes.

"There are some customers where I'm dealing with the son after dealing with the father for years who's now retired," he said. 

He describes the tariffs as unnecessarily disruptive to Nova Craft and its customers.

"It is kind of a gut-punch," he said. 

Procunier said the tariffs won't stop him from selling to the U.S., but it will force the business to pivot. 

"We'll just have to find other markets," he said. "Overseas has become strong for us and Canada has become very loyal. We've had lots of new clients calling in the past few months asking for Canadian-made canoes. So that's a good sign." 

'Devastating' for Ontario's auto industry

There are worries the U.S. tariffs could lead to shutdowns at local auto plants. 

Mike Van Boekel is the plant chair with Unifor Local 88 at General Motors' CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll. He said the tariffs could be "devastating" for Ontario's auto industry. 

"I actually think the entire industry could go down within the next week," he said. "Obviously 90 per cent of our customers are in the U.S. If they're going to start tacking that kind of tariff, I think the whole industry might just shut down very quickly."  

In 2022 the plant underwent an extensive re-tooling to shift from building the Chevy Equinox to the BrightDrop electric delivery van. 

The plant is currently on a scheduled two-week shutdown period, but is set to resume production on March 17.  That would bring 1,300 employees back to work, but Van Boekel worries it now might not happen.

He's calling on Ottawa to ensure money from any employment insurance claims flow quickly for employees whose income is disrupted by the tariffs.

"It really hurts families when they're waiting weeks," he said

Mark Gee is a CAMI worker who's also worried the tariffs will lead to a work stoppage. His wife was laid off at the plant three weeks ago. 

"There's a lot of upset members right now," he said. "Everyone just wants to get back and build a quality vehicle. I'd like to see a two-shift operation again. I'd like to see everyone back to work full time. Right now, it's just a waiting game."

Ice cream maker looks elsewhere for ingredients

Although he doesn't sell a lot of ice cream to the U.S. market, Ashley Chapman of Chapman's Ice Cream in Markdale said the tariffs will take a bite out of his bottom line. 

Many of Chapman's ingredients come from south of the border and Canada's counter-tariffs — which he supports — will make those ingredients more expensive. 

"This is forever going to change the relationship between Canada and the United States," he said. 

He's now looking to source cherries from Spain or Italy, instead staying with his current U.S. supplier. 

He's hoping that a solution can be found before the tariffs do too much damage to the economies of both countries.

"If this lasts for the next couple of years then we're all going to be in a rough place," he said. "It's so insulting and counterproductive to all of us who are just now starting to get back to normalcy after the pandemic."