Feds implore businesses that received public funding to switch to Canadian steel and aluminum

The federal government is asking businesses that have received billions of dollars in public funding to switch to Canadian steel and aluminum as Ottawa continues a pivot away from American products during an escalating trade war with the United States.

 

It’s the latest Buy Canadian effort as relations with the United States erode. Last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government announced it was reviewing a $19-billion contract to buy U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets.

 

Innovation Minister Anita Anand on Monday wrote hundreds of organizations that have received Strategic Innovation Fund and Supercluster money asking them to switch to domestically made metal.

 

“I am writing you as a beneficiary of public investment through Innovation, Economic Development Canada programs,” the minister wrote in her letter.

“I am writing to call on you to use Canadian inputs, especially Canadian steel and aluminum products, wherever relevant and possible, as your project develops.”

 

On March 12, U.S President Donald Trump imposed 25-per-cent tariffs on foreign aluminum and steel products, including those from Canada, arguing these imports “threaten to impair national security,” an allegation that Canada rejects.

 

“Today it is the steel and aluminum industries in Canada that are being targeted; tomorrow it could be others,” Ms. Anand wrote.

 

Last week she announced that Ottawa will begin prioritizing funding of projects that use predominantly Canadian steel and aluminum.

 

“It is only by banding together now that we can protect Canadian industries and safeguard our economy.”

 

 

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail