L'Orignal braces for impact of hike to U.S. steel tariff

Workers and the community around a major eastern Ontario steel plant are nervously watching what the doubling of U.S. tariffs will mean for the area's economy. 

Ivaco Rolling Mills is a major employer in L'Orignal, Ont., a village about 90 kilometres northeast of Ottawa, that draws workers and creates spinoff business for the surrounding region. 

Ivaco's parent company, Heico, announced the layoffs of 140 workers in March, with about one-third of those cuts affecting the L'Orignal plant. A combination of reduced hours, furloughs, and permanent layoffs to absorb the blow of tariffs has followed, according to the union local.

Eric Fournier, president of the plant's United Steelworkers union local, told CBC News on Wednesday when the tariffs were announced that there hadn't been word of any cancelled orders related to the tariff, but people are feeling the uncertainty.

"We have daily phone calls or people that show up to my office asking questions [like], 'What's next? What's happening?'" he said.

Workers from both sides of river

Fournier estimates about 60 per cent of the plant's output goes to the U.S. with the rest sold domestically. He said the company's sales teams have been working to find other buyers.

"Hopefully we stay afloat for that time and the next administration will just open the gates," he said. "Mexico [and] Canada, we're not the enemy; we're the allies."

If tariffs put more people out of work, the "next big job" would be around an hour's commute away, Fournier added. 

Christina Famili recently moved to L'Orginal with her husband and called the spike in tariffs "frightening."

"If it was me, I would be very, very nervous, very upset. I don't know what they're going to do," Famili said outside the pharmacy next to the town's welcoming moose statue. 

Famili said the plant employs residents of the town plus people living in neighbouring communities such as Hawkesbury and Quebecers who come across the Ottawa River. 

While L'Orignal doesn't have a downtown strip, Highway 17 runs through the town and connects it to Ivaco and industrial and farm equipment businesses.

King's Garage owner Guillaume Landriault said his business benefits from the transport trucks that drive to and from Ivaco and require repairs or inspection. He said he's also received some inquiries from Ivaco employees looking for work.

"It's an important plant for sure for all the community," he said. He's confident he has other clients to keep his mechanics busy, but tariffs of 50 per cent raise serious questions. 

"It could affect people, the restaurants, car dealers, families. It's going to affect the country and all the areas around here."

Fournier says the message he has received from the company is that they will keep calm in the face of new levies.  

"Tariffs were put on all sorts of goods and then they were removed again … We always try to look [ahead] a couple of days and see what really happens."

Ivaco did not respond to CBC's request for comment by deadline.