More Alberta businesses get federal dollars to offset tariff impacts

Ottawa is helping some local businesses by giving money to help deal with tariffs.

Five more Alberta businesses are getting federal help to become more resilient in the face of tariffs.

Together, the businesses are receiving more than $7 million through the Regional Tariff Response Initiative (RTRI), a $1-billion program.

Alberta Chambers of Commerce (ACC) is getting the largest chunk, $3.5 million, for trade missions and helping businesses strengthen supply chains and interprovincial trade.

“It will help firms connect to new markets, new partners and new opportunities across the prairies. It will also help us do something just as important, make domestic supply chain opportunities easier to see and easier to act on going forward, and we know this matters to businesses,” said ACC President and CEO Shauna Feth at a news conference in Edmonton on Tuesday.

“Too often the opportunity is already there, but businesses don’t know where to find it. Capacity exists, suppliers exist, potential partners and customers exist, but without better visibility, these opportunities can remain hidden in plain sight.”

Edmonton machine shop Apollo Machine and Welding Ltd. is receiving $1 million to incorporate machine learning into its operations, which centre around high-powered laser technology.

“This is cutting edge and it’s happening here in Alberta,” Apollo’s production engineering manager Gentry Wood said.

Cast Steel Products, Demir Engineering, and RAM Elevators and Lifts are also each receiving about $1 million to expand and improve their operations.

“For all of these companies, they’re really companies that struggled on account of either the tariffs, Chinese and American tariffs, or Canadian counter tariffs,” said Eleanor Olszewski, Edmonton Centre MP and the federal minister of Prairies Economic Development Canada, which oversees the RTRI, noting that steel-related industries have been among the hardest hit.

RTRI funding is accessed via online application.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Dave Mitchell