Prime Minister Mark Carney holds a press conference following the First Ministers meeting at the National War Museum on March 21.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Friday a relief package for workers and companies hurt by trade wars with the United States and China and pledged a suite of measures to expedite major infrastructure and resource-extraction projects.
“It’s high time we built things we’ve never imagined, at a speed we’ve never seen,” the Prime Minister said, just days before a federal election campaign is expected to begin Sunday. He spoke after a meeting with provincial and territorial premiers.
He said his government would speed up major projects by recognizing provincial assessments of these projects. “If we’ve got one project – there will be one review. It’s high time to build,” Mr. Carney said.
Since taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has sparked job losses and discouraged investment by threatening, and in some cases, imposing tariffs on Canadian imports. He put 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum earlier this month, and is set to hit Canada, and other countries, with fresh levies April 2.
Across-the-board tariffs of 25 per cent on most Canadian imports – 10 per cent on energy, critical minerals and potash – were imposed in March with a month-long reprieve for goods in compliance with the United States Mexico Canada agreement until April 2. Canada has announced countertariffs on American goods.
A brewing trade spat with China has also resulted in retaliatory tariffs from Beijing on $3.7-billion worth of Canadian imports, from canola oil to pork to seafood. The move was in return for 100-per-cent tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles and 25-per-cent levies on Chinese steel and aluminum that Canada imposed last year after similar levies enacted by the United States.
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The government’s aid package includes: waiving the one-week waiting period before collecting employment insurance; allowing workers to collect before they have exhausted severance pay; and making it easier to access this support.
Ottawa will also temporarily allow companies to defer corporate income-tax payments as well as remittances of the goods and services tax and harmonized sales tax, Mr. Carney announced.
The government will also create a new “financing facility,” to help businesses struggling as a result of the trade war, called the Large Enterprise Economic and National Security Facility “to provide liquidity support,” he said.
As well, Ottawa will provide “more funding to our regional development agencies,” he said.
“These measures will support our workers, help keep businesses running, and protect our economy in the face of this trade war.
At the same time, Mr. Carney promised a raft of measures – which will take months to roll out – that will foster and speed up national-interest infrastructure projects and resource extraction.
The Prime Minister said he and the premiers had agreed on developing what he called “national trade and energy corridors” to deliver energy and critical minerals to new markets.
He said Ottawa would commit to removing any labour-mobility restrictions for federally regulated professions and set up a “First Mile Fund” that provides funding “to build transmission and transportation networks to link extraction sites to rail lines and roads.
Mr. Carney said the federal government would work with provinces to build “national-interest projects that cross interprovincial boundaries.”
He said projects that would undergo a single review including infrastructure and development related to the mineral-rich Ring of Fire region in Ontario, Ports such as Grays Bay in Nunavut and the Port of Montreal as well as work at the Second Narrows Crossing in B.C.
“I am convinced that by working together, we can develop and build a more interconnected and resilient Canadian economy.”
Asked if a Liberal government would spend public money to build an oil or gas pipeline, Mr. Carney declined to rule it out.
“The vast, vast, vast majority of investment dollars and risk is going to be borne by the private sector – and rewards, of course, by the private sector – but I’m not going to rule out any federal participation in any possibility down the road,” he told media.
The Prime Minister said Ottawa will remove any federal barriers to internal trade in Canada as well as any labour mobility restrictions for federally regulated professions. Legislation to effect changes would be passed by July 1, he said.
“We’re combing through all federal legislation for those barriers. We intend, from a federal level, to have free trade by Canada Day,” he said.
“Our vision is one where goods, services, and workers can move seamlessly from coast to coast to coast.”
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