The federal government has a new financial aid program to help businesses and municipalities that get hurt by President Trump’s new tariffs against Canada and Prescott and Russell will seek its share of that assistance.
Officials with the Société de développement communautaire de Prescott and Russell Community Development Corporation (SDCPRCDC) presented the United Counties of Prescott and Russell council (UCPR) on August 26 with a progress report on the success so far of the five-year regional Economic Development Strategy and Action Plan.
That included a notice to council that the PRCDC intends to pursue whatever funding support may be available soon from the federal government as part of its new financial aid program to help businesses and communities suffering from the new 50-per-cent tariffs that President Donald Trump plans to impose on Canadian exports to the U.S.
“Our team is already working on those initiatives to make sure Prescott and Russell gets its fair share,” said John Candie, PRCDC executive director.
The day before the federal finance department announced a two-part plan to deal with President Trump’s threat to impose new tariffs on Canadian imports to the U.S. after the failure of last month’s negotiations on a new trade agreement.
Prime Minister Mark Carney recalled the Canada’s negotiation team just before midnight August 21, the last day of a three-day extension on the August 19 deadline that Trump had set for implementing a new series of tariffs on Canadian goods.
The prime minister announced later that the U.S. negotiating team introduced a series of new terms “at the last minute” that were unacceptable because they threatened Canadian sovereignty over its own trade and economic policies and also against federal bilingual culture standards that support and protect the French language.
Now the federal government plans to enact its own series of “dollar for dollar” counter-tariffs, ranging from 15, 25, and 50 per cent on U.S. products imported into Canada. The counter-tariffs will focus on products that cover the $27.6 billion in U.S. exports to Canada.
The federal government will also create a $7.5 billion package of aid programs to support workers and businesses affected by the Trump tariffs. The aid package includes: another $1.5 billion investment in the Regional Tariff Response program delivered through the federal regional development agencies to help small- and medium-sized businesses; a $500 million liquidity stream through the Business Development Bank of Canada’s (BDBC) Pivot to Grow program to help businesses manage their immediate cash-flow pressures resulting from the tariffs and also programs that focus on the forestry, steel, and aluminum sectors; improved access to the BDBC’s tariff-related program by lowering the minimum revenue requirement for applicants to $1 million; another $2 billion investment through the Canada Strong Diversification Fund to support tariff-affected businesses that have “shovel-ready” projects that support ongoing capital maintenance; a new addition of $3.5 billion Rapid Response Supports for Workers and Employers aid to help Canadians affected by the U.S. tariffs.
