REGINA - There is plenty of uncertainty among steel workers in Saskatchewan about the potential tariffs coming from President Donald Trump.
Steelworkers face the potential of broad-based 25 per cent tariffs that could come in March 4, followed soon after by potential tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and aluminum exports to the United States.
The situation seemingly changes by the hour. At one point last week it looked like President Donald Trump might delay the 25 per cent tariffs by another month, to April 2.
But then he confirmed the March 4 tariffs are still on, although there are some news reports that perhaps Canada could yet escape the full brunt of it.
Mike Day, United Steelworkers Local 5890 President, spoke to reporters about the situation facing steel workers at the moment.
“The status we are in right now isn’t good,” Day told reporters Thursday. “The fact (is) that uncertainty hasn’t changed, and it seems since Trump put in 232 originally.”
The number ‘232’ refers to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, the section under which President Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel imports back in 2018.
“We haven't been able to access a lot of lines or product down to the United States based on when he brought this in then,” Day said.
As for the threat of possibly 小蓝视频 double-tariffed at a combined 50 per cent, Day was worried about the impact on the local industry including those working at Evraz Steel.
“What’s this going to do to us? Sense on the floor right now is the possibility of a crewdown in the next three months. We're not sure what that looks like, but order status is up in the air, so it's not good.”
Day expressed particular frustration about the uncertainty.
“I'm just frustrated… We were having a conversation with the company a couple of months ago when Trump started talking about 25 per cent, and you know, then you get good news that he's come to his senses a little bit. But then it’s starting a trade war now at 50 per cent. It's not just affecting us. Obviously, it's aluminum. It's affecting everywhere….
“Across the board, USW represents thousands of members in both the steel and aluminum sector. The job situation is uncertain across the board. What we do know is that our international office has a subcommittee working with the White House trying to get some leverage in there, but it's Donald Trump. We don't know what we're going to get to.”
Day said right now Evraz is at about 500 workers. There are about 50 working in their tubular division. He indicated there is some production that ships slab down to the United States.
As for potential alternative markets for Evraz products, Day is unsure where those might be.
“Where we are, access to shipping out to Europe our steel markets that way -- that'd be foreign to Evraz itself, I think, and even back to the days of Ipsco, we've relied on the U.S. market... what formerly was Ipsco (and) is now Evraz was the 'little mill that could.' And now, you know, we've expanded into multi-different mini mills all over the place.
“And now we're stuck, we're here alone and fighting a big conglomerate of Donald Trump's tariffs and administration. And, you know, Evraz is based out of Chicago, but we're not seeming to get any leverage that way either.”
“I think he's right to be concerned,” said Jason Childs, University of Regina economics professor, in an interview Friday.
“The U.S. is still a major destination for a lot of the steel we produce…. relative to domestic consumption, Canada has excess capacity in steel, and that capacity is intended for export markets.”
Childs said he did not see how — “particularly for Saskatchewan” — that “we don't get hurt by U.S. tariffs.”
“That will definitely harm our steel industry here in Regina, for sure. Because, again, so much of that is going to the U.S. A lot of it is used here, but we do depend on the export market as well.”
Concerns about what the impact of tariffs could have on steel exports have prompted the NDP’s Carla Beck to call for calling for more pipelines, rail lines, highways and electricity lines 小蓝视频 built west to east. Day was at that announcement Thursday.
“This is investment that is needed,” Beck said. “We have had one heck of a wake-up call over the last number of months, and it's clear that we need to build out this infrastructure, something, frankly, that we've known about for a long time…
"We are 小蓝视频 held hostage by the American administration at this time. We need to increase the choices that we have, the market access. We all hope that the trade relationship with the United States will stabilize, but it's clear that we cannot rely on that. I think the last number of months have really shown us how important this investment in east-west infrastructure, getting our own goods to market, is to not only this province but the entire country. This is a nation-building exercise at a time when we've had a massive wake-up call. We need to get this done.”
The Sask Party government has also voiced their support for east-west infrastructure, with Premier Scott Moe going so far as to send out a post on the X platform last week that pipeline applications in the province would be considered pre-approved.
Moe was in Washington D.C. last week, with business leaders lobbying elected officials and business leaders to stop the Trump tariffs. He was back in Saskatchewan Friday morning, at a news conference in Saskatoon.
In that media availability, Premier Moe spoke some more about the threat of steel and aluminum tariffs. Moe thought there was an opportunity to avoid them by making efforts to prevent foreign-made steel from flowing into the USMCA free trade agreement zone.
“March 12th is the steel and aluminum tariffs,” Moe said. “There is an opportunity for our federal government to engage to protect the free-trading continental opportunities that we have…
“We urge the federal government to look at all options that they might have in that space to alleviate those tariffs that are proposed to potentially come into effect on March the 12th. They need to ensure that there is not foreign steel that is flowing into a USMCA trade-free area. This was some of the steps that we took five years ago when there was steel and aluminum tariffs proposed, and we need to double down our efforts on ensuring that the USMCA trade area is for Canadian, Mexico, and U.S.-built products.”
