In a bid to mitigate the economic hit from sweeping import taxes on Canadian goods proposed by US President Donald Trump, Canada will temporarily allow businesses to defer payments of corporate income tax and consumption tax remittances, Carney said in Ottawa late Friday. The move would apply April 2 to June 30, his office added in a statement later.
In addition, Canada will deploy a new government financing facility and make it easier and faster for affected workers to access government support programs, he said, without detailing the budget impact of the moves.
“These measures as a whole will help our workers, help keep our businesses running, and protect our economy during this phase of the trade war,” said Carney, who was sworn in as prime minister a week ago after replacing Justin Trudeau as leader of the ruling Liberal Party. “We are in a crisis — not of our own making.”
Industry Minister Anita Anand later outlined a C$450 million ($314 million) boost over five years for regional development agencies to help small and medium-sized businesses affected by tariffs.
Carney didn’t stop there. Under pressure from US import tariffs already put in place, and the threat of new duties coming into force on April 2, Canada has imposed retaliatory measures aimed at some US goods.
At his Friday evening news conference, Carney also announced measures aimed at stimulating investment and accelerating the movement of goods, services and workers between the country’s thirteen provinces and territories. By harmonizing regulations, he said, “we can create that truly open and one Canadian market.”
The prime minister claimed eliminating Canada’s internal barriers would increase the size of its economy by C$250 billion.
“It is high time to build things that we never imagined and to build them at a speed that we have never seen,” said Carney, a former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England.
Some of the other measures Carney announced include:
- Developing a national trade and energy corridor strategy for transportation, energy, critical minerals, and digital connectivity
- Removal of all federal exemptions under the Canadian Free Trade Agreement
- Legislation to be introduced by July 1st would remove federal barriers to the interprovincial trade of goods
- The government will also remove labor mobility restrictions for federally regulated jobs and eliminate federal duplicative requirements by recognizing provincial assessments for major projects.
“One project, one review,” Carney said regarding that final point, adding that officials will also create what he called a “one-window approval process.”
The new measures include a “first-mile fund” for capital to build transmission and transportation networks to link natural resource extraction sites to existing railways and roads, as well as doubling the size of Canada’s indigenous loan guarantee program to C$10 billion.
Canada will also work with provinces and indigenous groups to identify “projects of national significance” in an attempt to get them built faster.
He cited three examples: investments in the port of Churchill in Manitoba, and the west coast liquid natural gas facilities Cedar LNG and LNG Canada — the latter of which which could have a second phase which doubles its output.
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