Industry leader says tariff pressures are hitting Canadian manufacturing

FILE: An aluminum worker walks through aisles of extrusions on Sept. 18, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov

While U.S. President Donald Trump has lowered tariffs on some grocery items in the United States, relief has yet to reach Canada.

Whether it’s the rising cost of groceries or sweeping job cuts expected in many sectors, tariffs are impacting many aspects of Canadian’s lives. And while things shift slightly South of the border, Canadians are grappling with how to forge forward.

• Trump lowers tariffs on beef, coffee, other foods as inflation concerns mount

A member of Mark Carney’s Council on Canada-U.S. relations told CTV News Channel on Sunday that Americans are waking up to the fact that tariffs on imports are consumption taxes, which will put increasing pressure on Trump to deliver.

“When his treasury secretary is spending the week saying we’re going to give everybody $2,000 back, then they kind of lose the argument that tariffs don’t raise prices,” said Flavio Volpe, who is also the president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturer’s Association.

Volpe said it’s not clear whether that will lead to any movement in Canada, particularly when it comes to steel, aluminum and automotive industries.

He explained that 85 per cent of Canadian-made cars are sold to the U.S., which now has to either pay 25 per cent more, or stop buying them.

“That means they’ve bought 25 or 30 per cent less product from us this year and a lot of people’s jobs hang in the balance,” Volpe said, adding that Canada buys $100 billion worth of cars and parts from the U.S. every year.

“We are putting the same kind of pain on our counterparts in the U.S. midwest and the U.S. southeast,” he said. “It means everybody is suffering a bit, including the steel mills we buy our steel from and aluminum smelters we buy aluminum from.”

The impact is being specially felt in Ontario.

In October, Stellantis announced plans to move production of its Jeep Compass to Illinois, after previously pausing production at the Brampton, Ont., plant in February as a result of Trump’s tariffs. A week later, General Motors announced an end to production of its electric delivery van at the Ingersoll, Ont. plant.

Volpe said that every time a car plant closes, it impacts up to 10,000 jobs between the automaker and the suppliers.

• CTV National News: Could Trump’s backtrack on tariffs impact Canada-U.S. trade talks?

With trade talks halted between the U.S. and Canada, Volpe said there’s currently nothing to compel the U.S. to come back to the table, and until that changes, Canada will have to increase its focus on what it can do for itself.

He said while that won’t replace the majority of our export market, “in the interim we’ve got to focus on what you can control.”