Electricity and critical minerals are integral trade chips in the Ontario’s countermeasures against the Trump administration’s blanket 25 per cent import tariffs against Canadian goods that went in effect March 4.
“We need to make sure America feels the pain,” said Premier Doug Ford said in a March 4 news conference at Queen’s Park.
Once Ottawa unveiled its 25 per cent counter tariffs against $155-billion worth of American goods, Ontario piled on with a penalty package of its own.
Some go immediately into effect, but Ford is holding off wielding a heavier hammer until spring in case the cross-border trade situation further deteriorates.
A 25 per cent surcharge on Ontario power exports to the U.S. is coming, Ford said, coupled with restrictions to American manufacturers wanting Ontario-mined critical minerals.
Should the Trump administration and the U.S. Commerce Secretary introduce a more onerous second round of tariffs against Canada come April 2, Ford said this week he wouldn’t hesitate to escalate matters by actually pulling the plug on power exports. He’s urging other premiers to take a similar stance.
Fair warning letters are being sent to U.S. representatives in the Senate, Congress and those holding the governor’s chair in Michigan, New York State and Minnesota.
“I highly recommend to President Trump, don’t force our hand. You underestimate Canadians, you’re making a massive mistake,” said a defiant Ford.
The province is considering withholding nickel shipments, a key mineral ingredient in the North American electric vehicle and clean technology movement, opting instead to stockpile it and ship it to other countries.
Withholding nickel could be damaging to American industry since 50 per cent of that country’s consumption of the metal comes from Canada.
The U.S. has only one nickel mine in the upper peninsula of Michigan and is scrambling to fast-track another one, in Minnesota, into production.
Ford said he’ll huddle with the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today to discuss the process of how those export shipments can be halted.
In calling it a “tough day for Ontario,” Ford said he introduced these measures reluctantly, but the Trump administration left him no choice.
The pain from U.S. tariffs on businesses and families should become very real in the days and weeks ahead. Ford predicts auto assembly plants on both sides of the border will shut down within 10 days because the cross-border supply chain in parts traffic.
Ford advised Ontarians to “dig in for a long fight” while promising the province will do “whatever it takes” and use every means available to protect livelihoods and the economy.
“We will spare no expense to protect Ontario workers.”
That includes providing retraining dollars to impacted workers and assisting Ontario manufacturers in their retooling efforts to enter new markets. More roads, highways and bridges will be built in Ontario as make-work projects for builders, he said.
U.S. tariffs have served as a wake-up call. Ford said Canadians only have themselves to blame in relying exclusively on the U.S. as a trading partner.
He talked of an on-shoring movement to expand Ontario manufacturing into new product lines and trade diversification into other markets.
Big infrastructure projects like new rail and east-west pipelines must be built, he said, and government regulatory red tape must be cut that delay enormous resource projects, like the Ring of Fire, which could be supplying critical minerals to the world.
“We can no longer take 10 years to get shovels in the ground,” said Ford.
Among the province’s retaliatory measures now in effect is that U.S. companies are banned from the Ontario government procurement process, losing out on some $30 billion a year in spending.
American firms are also shut out from $200 billion worth of provincial infrastructure projects already on the books.
“U.S-based business will now lose out on tens of billions of dollars in revenues,” said Ford. “They only have President Trump to blame.”
He recommended Ontario’s 440 municipalities to follow suit in their practices.
Ford is also following through on a threat by tearing up its contract with Elon Musk-owned Starlink. The premier said he won’t tolerate doing business with the tech billionaire and Trump power broker who acts as an enabler to a president who’s out to cripple Canada’s economy.
U.S. alcohol products are coming off the LCBO shelves, a move Ford said that’ll deliver an enormous hit to producers from 35 states who sell $1 billion through the wholesaler. That’s especially bad news for Kentucky bourbon producers. Ontario is its largest consumer.
“We said we’d never start a trade and tariff war with the U.S., but you’d better believe we’re ready to win one,” said Ford.
When asked in a media Q & A about the status of the $70 billion in new business brought into Ontario in the form of multi-national electric vehicle and battery manufacturers in southern Ontario, Ford said he’s assigning economic development minister Vic Fedeli to reach out to the major automakers to ensure those heavily subsidized investments are intact.
