The federal government is launching a more than $6-billion aid package for businesses impacted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and relaxing some employment insurance (EI) rules to help workers.
Steven MacKinnon, Mary Ng and Rechie Valdez — the ministers of labour, international trade and small business — made the announcement Friday afternoon.
“We have tried and tested tools to get our people through the toughest of crises and we will not hesitate to use them,” MacKinnon said.
As part of the supports for businesses, the government is providing $5 billion over two years for exporters to help them find new markets beyond the U.S. and a $500-million loan program through the Business Development Bank of Canada for businesses directly impacted by the tariffs.
Ottawa is also boosting the financing program for the agricultural sector — known as Farm Credit Canada — to the tune of $1 billion.
The government is also temporarily relaxing rules around a program that allows employees to receive partial EI benefits while working reduced hours. The government says the temporary measures will increase access to the program and lengthen the time that those benefits are typically available.
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.
Asked by reporters if further measures would be taken to support businesses and workers, MacKinnon said it would depend on how the situation unfolds.
“The ball seems to bounce every day. We have every intention of customizing a response to tariffs or no tariffs as the case may be. Our first duty is to make sure that these tariffs don’t get imposed on Canada,” he said.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Thursday that 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. Canada has currently levied $30 billion worth of U.S. imports.
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.
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