Workers change shifts at Stellantis's Chrysler Windsor Assembly facility in Windsor, Ont., on April 4.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced $11-billion in tariff-related relief for businesses – a plan pledged during his winter re-election campaign – while facing criticism that his ban on contracts with American companies doesn’t apply to U.S. firms with more than 250 employees in Canada.
With the economy and financial markets reeling from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff regime, Mr. Ford announced Monday that his government was offering Ontario businesses six months of tax deferrals as the levies weighed on the province’s auto, steel and aluminum sectors.
The move suspends interest payments and penalties for a list of provincial taxes that businesses face, including a health tax and levies on insurance, gas, alcohol and tobacco, with the relief worth up to $9-billion. Those tax bills are now set to come due on Oct. 1.
Another $2-billion will flow to businesses from the surplus funds collected by the province’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, or WSIB. It’s a move the government has made several times in recent years, and follows a previous $2-billion in rebates sent out just last month.
“We’ll always be there to protect communities and their businesses. Let’s hope that President Trump comes to some common sense here,” Mr. Ford told reporters in Toronto, noting that financial markets were falling and that Americans were speaking up.
He also said that billions of dollars in planned auto-sector investments in Ontario, which include large federal and provincial incentives for Volkswagen, Honda and Ford, were still set to proceed, despite Mr. Trump’s tariffs.
Separately, the provincial government has posted the details of Mr. Ford’s pledge last month to ban U.S. companies from Ontario government contracts until the tariffs are removed. He has said this would exclude American firms from access to the $30-billion the province and its agencies spend on goods and services every year. He also said U.S. firms would be excluded from the $200-billion the province plans to spend on infrastructure over the next decade.
But the policy, posted online, will still allow U.S.-headquartered companies to do business with the government provided they have at least 250 employees in Canada. The policy, which applies to new contracts, also allows for exceptions when a U.S. company is the “only viable source” of a product or service and the procurement cannot be delayed.
The Council of Canadian Innovators, a group representing domestic tech firms and startups, criticized the policy for allowing large U.S. firms with many employees here to keep competing for contracts and said the province needs a long-term, permanent domestic procurement strategy.
“The reality is this policy doesn’t have much teeth, because it exempts big, foreign technology firms that have a branch plant presence in Ontario,” said Skaidra Puodziunas, the council’s director of Ontario affairs.
In an e-mail, Ali Nasser Virji, director of policy with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, supported the notion of “weighing domestic impact in procurement.” But he also said the province “must recognize the economic value of U.S.-based companies investing in Ontario,” noting that they employ thousands of people.
Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy defended the procurement policy, which also applies to Ontario Power Generation, hospitals, colleges and universities, school boards and children’s aid societies.
“It’s a very complicated process. But the fundamental principle remains that if we can, in the face of this trade war, give Canadian companies, Ontario companies a better shot … we’re going to do it,” he said in an interview.
A spokesperson for Caroline Mulroney, the President of the Treasury Board, said that in 2023-24, the province’s public service spent an estimated $91.5-million on suppliers with a U.S. billing address. The spokesperson, Liz Tuomi, did not provide more details about how many of these companies would have been disqualified under the new policy.
Both the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business welcomed Mr. Ford’s announcements on tax relief and the WSIB rebate.
In a statement, NDP MPP Lise Vaugeois, the party’s critic for the WSIB, said the government’s $2-billion payout should have been put toward increased payments to injured workers, not their employers.
Mr. Ford, speaking to reporters on Monday, dismissed this criticism, noting his government handed out $200 cheques to most residents in January. The move cost the deficit-plagued province $3-billion, just before Mr. Ford called a snap election.
Ottawa has also deferred corporate tax payments until June in the face of the U.S. tariffs.
Former Ontario chief economist Brian Lewis said the across-the-board tax deferrals were an easy lever for the government to pull quickly in the pandemic and in the current trade war, rather then aid targeted at specific sectors.
“It’s a helpful thing,” Mr. Lewis said. “It’s not going to be the only thing.”
Flavio Volpe, head of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, said the moves were a good first step: “If the economy tanks, obviously, we’d be looking at enhancement on this.”