The prosperity and productivity of a country’s people and economy depends on businesses and investments growing, and workers having good paying jobs to support their families.

An urgent and timely issue affecting jobs includes tariffs, specifically tariffs for softwood lumber production, electric vehicles (EV’s), aluminum, steel, critical minerals, and other products.

The first speech I made in the House of Commons called on the federal government to immediately negotiate a Softwood Lumber Agreement with the United States due to tariffs the U.S. was imposing on Canadian lumber and job losses at the time. This included job losses in our community. The previous Conservative government successfully secured an agreement - as well as an extension, which expired in 2015. Canada has also previously filed trade complaints against the U.S. and won.

The forestry sector is especially important to British Columbians, as it provides many well-paying jobs that support families. BC producers exported 5.4 million cubic metres of lumber, worth $1.73 billion, to the U.S. over the first six months of 2024 alone. This is a crucial industry.

Unfortunately, after nine years of the Liberal government’s inaction, the U.S. has now nearly doubled tariffs on softwood lumber. This has increased the total tariffs to an average rate of 14.54%, up from 8.05%. When Canadian companies pay tariffs up front, it adds substantially to immediate costs. It also adds significant uncertainty to all those employed in the forestry sector. Moreover, it creates uncertainty and adds extra costs to the construction industry, as the supply chains for lumber are integrated between our two countries.  

The bottom line is that these tariffs will have devastating consequences within this hugely important sector.

On electric vehicles (EVs), the Liberal government often praises its investments into the EV sector without working to secure the associated jobs. Beijing poses a real threat with cheap made-in-China EVs (and other products related to EV production) flooding our markets.

This situation puts hundreds of thousands of steel, aluminum, mining, and auto manufacturing jobs at risk by injecting artificially low prices from cheap made-in-China goods that outcompete domestic Canadian products.

It must be noted that the regime in Beijing is only able to offer these low import costs because of their practices which exploit poor labour, human rights, and environmental standards.

To address this issue with urgency, the Trade Committee recently passed a Conservative motion to study tariffs on the unfair EV, steel, and aluminum sectors coming from China. The U.S. has been escalating tariffs on these made-in-China items over the past six years, and Canada has not been in step with our largest trading partner. This is why Conservatives called on the Liberal government to match the U.S. tariffs to protect Canadian jobs. After much public pressure, the Liberal government finally announced matching the U.S. tariffs.

Furthermore, when the Liberal government announced funding for various billion-dollar EV projects – including the Stellantis/NextStar battery plant - they emphasized the importance of this spending for securing jobs for Canadian workers. We now know that this isn’t the case.

Canada’s Building Trades Union confirmed that heavily subsidized battery plants in southwestern Ontario will rely on foreign replacement workers instead of Canadian workers in jobs they say their workers could do. The $44 billion being spent on already-profitable corporations is not even delivering the jobs that were promised to Canadians by the federal government.

Moreover, Liberal and NDP Members of Parliament tried to block Conservative efforts to produce the details of these battery plant contracts, which we now know show the extent to which foreign workers are being utilized. The astounding lack of transparency on this issue should concern all Canadians. We need to ensure that Canadians’ tax dollars are used wisely, and that taxpayer-funded jobs are given to Canadians.

I’d like to hear from you: Are you concerned about these current issues affecting jobs and workers?

Please reach out to 250-470-5075 or [email protected] if have any thoughts to share – on this issue or others - or if you need assistance with any federal programs.