Canada will prevail against Trump's tariffs but 'we've got to go through it': finance minister
Government exploring financial supports for affected Canadians, Dominic LeBlanc says
Federal Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc says things could get "very tough" under sweeping U.S. tariffs, but it will help Canada's case when that pain is felt on both sides of the border.
"I'm convinced in the end [Canada's argument] will prevail, because it's in the American economic interest to not sort of get into this rabbit hole," LeBlanc told The Current's Matt Galloway.
"But now that we're in it … we've got to go through it and we've got to do it in a way that supports Canadian businesses and the Canadian workers."
U.S. President Donald Trump slapped 25 per cent tariffs on a wide range of Canadian goods Saturday, with a lower rate of 10 per cent on the country's energy products. Ottawa retaliated with 25 per cent tariffs on $155 billion of U.S. goods.
On Monday afternoon, following two calls with Trump, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the U.S. would pause tariffs for at least 30 days. The Canadian government, Trudeau said, would appoint a fentanyl "czar" and increase border security.
Trump also placed 25 per cent tariffs on Mexico, and 10 per cent tariffs on China. But earlier on Monday Trump delayed tariffs on Mexico by a month, after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to deploy 10,000 Mexican national guard troops to the U.S. border.
LeBlanc spoke to Galloway on Monday morning, before Trudeau's calls with Trump, to discuss what the federal government is doing to win this fight and support Canadians.
The Bank of Montreal says Trump's tariffs hammer will come down hard on the Canadian economy. How bad is this going to be?
I think it's going to be very tough. Provincial governments and the Department of Finance have looked at various scenarios. What we don't yet know is how quickly Canadian businesses will be able to respond.
I'm talking to you from Moncton, New Brunswick this morning. People are fishing lobster in the Bay of Fundy now, and 70 or 80 per cent of that catch gets sent to Boston. So you can see the price will go up by 25 per cent tomorrow. So big and small sectors of our economy are going to be hit.
Our government, of course, responded with some counter tariff measures that we can escalate over time. We're convinced that in the end, the Americans will conclude that it's not in their economic interest to continue this kind of back and forth.
There has been endless kind of shuttle diplomacy back and forth.... Why [do] you think the efforts of Canada failed to persuade [Trump] to change his mind?
I've asked myself that question, Matt, and I think my colleagues have as well, because you're right, we made a considerable effort. Premiers made a very considerable effort to speak directly to Americans [and] American leaders. We think we have a good story to tell on border security, on the increased work that the RCMP and CBSA [Canada Border Services Agency] have done in recent weeks with their American partners.
There's no daylight between Canada and the United States in wanting to fight that kind of criminal activity [around fentanyl] or the horrible effects it has in Canadian and American communities. So you're right, if that was the pretext for these tariffs, we think that that argument should be rationally resolved. So then therefore, one asks the question, well, why did they go ahead with this decision on the weekend?
The focus for us, Matt, has to be, "OK, they've done it." What do we need to do to respond to get Canada out from under this circumstance as quickly as possible and as we go through it? What do we need to do with provinces and territories and other partners to support Canadian businesses? So we're really going to focus on that.
Is there any wiggle room, do you think, to avoid these tariffs coming into place tomorrow?
We don't think so. We took note of what [Trump] said publicly at the end of last week … that there's nothing that Canada or Mexico could have done to avoid this.
He said that himself, which … is a bit contradictory from the idea that if we could show them and work with them to tell the good story about border security … they would be reassured and these tariffs wouldn't happen. So there's a lot of contradiction in much of what is said publicly. But we can spend a lot of time being distracted by that.
The prime minister will make the case to the president this morning why this is putting at risk decades of economic and security partnership and will hurt Canadian and American businesses in a way that's totally unnecessary.
We'll continue to make that argument. I'm convinced in the end it will prevail because it's in the American economic interest to not sort of get into this rabbit hole. But now that we're in it … we've got to go through it and we've got to do it in a way that supports Canadian businesses and the Canadian workers.
There are people who are very, very anxious about what the next few days will hold.... What is your government going to do to help support Canadians who could be out of work, perhaps even temporarily, by the end of this week?
There are existing federal programs, Matt. Employment insurance is obviously one of them. We can adjust some of the criteria, some of the access to benefits. There's changes we can make around work sharing to allow more workers to remain employed to share, in other words, the economic risk with the businesses.
All of those programs are being looked at, like, literally on the weekend and today. We have the ability to immediately put in a number of flexibilities in existing programs. I can, as the finance minister, ensure that there's liquidity in the economy, that businesses have access to the money they need to continue to operate.
What about for people who worry about their rent? I mean, will there be direct supports to people who worry that if they're not working, they can't keep the lights on in their house?
There are programs that exist now to support those workers. And if we need to have different programs that meet a particular need, we will. So we'll do what is necessary to ensure, to your exact question, that these workers are not through no fault of their own in an untenable economic position.
The good news is a lot of those programs exist now. And if we have to have different ones in partnership with provinces that will very much want to step up, then we absolutely will do that as well.
What do you make of how Canadians are responding, not just booing anthems, but … in terms of talking about cancelling vacations to the states, looking at Buy Canadian policies? What do you make of how we as Canadians have responded to this?
It's quite touching, to be honest. It's quite moving to see how people who aren't policymakers or business leaders or representatives of large groups of workers in their own daily routines and in their own decisions as consumers are wanting symbolically and substantively to do something to support the common cause.
Everybody's trying in their small way to say to the Americans: You know what? Decades of friendship and partnership economically and from a security perspective can't be thrown out because a particular president decides for a reason that's not particularly clear … to do this to the Canadian and American economy.
Audio produced by Paul MacInnis, Julie Crysler and Joana Draghici. Q&A edited for length and clarity
