Steel producers association unhappy with tariff remission program extensions

Stainless steel coils wait to be pressed into sheets in Montreal on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

OTTAWA — The head of the Canadian Steel Producers Association says Ottawa’s latest extension of a program that offsets the cost of tariffs in some sectors fails to encourage domestic firms to diversify away from the United States.

The horizontal tariff remissions program for steel, aluminum and some steel derivative products was to end on June 30 but the federal government said last week it is extending it for another year.

The program grants automatic relief on Canadian tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum to firms importing products integral to key Canadian sectors, or firms that support public health and national security.

Catherine Cobden of the steel association says it’s understandable the federal government would compensate companies for products they can’t source elsewhere, but she said domestic firms are often producing the kinds of steel Canada’s manufacturers need.

The program launched in April 2025 and was to last just six months but has been extended several times.

A spokesperson for Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne says the extension is meant to give certainty and predictability to Canadian manufacturers through a period of global instability.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2026.

Craig Lord, The Canadian Press