Business, CEO

This is no time to celebrate or run victory laps. Just because President Donald Trump did not include Canada in his universal tariffs last week that hit practically every other nation on the planet does not mean the threat to us is over. 

Keep in mind that a month ago the Trump administration slapped a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods and a 10 per cent tariff on our energy and potash exports. A week later he hit Canadian steel and aluminum products with a 25 per cent tariff. 

That was followed last week by a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian automobiles. Hundreds of thousands of Canadian jobs are under threat.  If that wasn’t bad enough, according to Prime Minister Mark Carney, the White House has indicated there may be more tariffs to come on “strategic sectors” such as pharmaceuticals, lumber and semiconductors. 

To believe we dodged a bullet last week is to be willfully blind and dangerously naive. And that invites complacency, something as potentially damaging as the unfair tariffs themselves. 

The fact is we have already been hit – and more bullets could very well be on the way. Let’s not forget Trump’s universal tariffs, based on a ridiculous and shoddy understanding of international trade, threaten to undermine the global economy. And Canada will be hit by that, too. 

The one glimmer of hope here is a response that goes beyond slapping our own retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. I was reminded of that while watching Team Canada’s overtime victory against Team USA in the 4 Nations Face-off tournament in February. It felt like vindication, karma and a bit of retribution all rolled into one. 

We won because we played as a team. We might have lost the preliminary-round game after American “goons” – that’s the word used by the L.A. Times – started three fights in the first nine seconds. But we didn’t back down. We stood up to the performative bullies and won in the end. 

Our players fought as a team against America’s hockey goons – but will we as a nation fight against America’s political goons?  Will we find ways to rely more on ourselves and less on the Americans?  

That’s a question still unanswered. There has been endless talk in Canada recently about dropping interprovincial trade barriers that, in the words of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, are ridiculous and according to economists like Calgary-based Trevor Tombe cost our economy more than $200 billion a year. 

Eliminating interprovincial trade barriers could reduce our productivity lag by up to a third. That’s not just theory. That’s data-backed potential. Statistics also show that reforming our aviation system alone could create five to 10 million more affordable flights and massively improve domestic and international logistics.  

Politicians across the country insist they are pro-business and this time will put aside regional differences to work together to strengthen the country. But talk is cheap. Action has proved difficult. The Canadian Free Trade Agreement signed in 2017 by the provinces, territories and federal government that was supposed to light a fire under trade turned out to be something of a spent match. 

Canadians might say they are pro-business. The reality is too many are not. Maybe it’s a Canadian thing where we view ourselves as too nice and the world of business too cut-throat – and therefore best left to the Americans. However, pro-business does not mean pro-goon. It means “pro-success.” And we must as a society look at it that way. 

Because that is what we’re talking about. A successful business community means more jobs, more money in people’s pockets, more tax revenue for hospitals, schools, and social programs. It means more investment in the three “R’s” of infrastructure needed for a stronger economy: Roads, Railways and Runways. Success is a perpetual motion machine that breeds more success. 

To that end, we need to overhaul our national tax regime that is currently a case study in how to make our businesses uncompetitive. As a start, politicians promising to scrap the proposed tax increase on capital gains must follow through. And we must keep in mind that a pro-success initiative depends on the average small business – one with fewer than 100 employees. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. 

According to the federal government’s most recent data, of the 1.22 million businesses in Canada, 1.19 million – that’s 97.8 percent – were small businesses. The figure is slightly higher in Alberta at 97.8 percent. Small businesses employed 46.8 percent of the total private labour force and accounted for more than 35 percent of the country’s GDP. Within that context, Edmonton is a national leader. 

According to Edmonton Global, we are “the fastest growing Region in Canada, with more than double the national average in export growth, generating $110.85 billion in GDP.” The Conference Board of Canada predicts Edmonton’s real GDP will grow by 2.7 percent in 2025 and average 2.8 percent for 2026-28 – compared to 2.3 percent for the next three years nationally. Trump and his tariff threats, though, have shaken our confidence and clouded our sunny economic forecasts.  

We are facing a crisis. However, if every crisis is an opportunity, Trump has just handed Canada a monumental nation-building opportunity. We must not let this crisis go to waste. We must not lose the sense of urgency and patriotism – and even fear – that has gripped our nation the past few months. 

The storm is not over. It has just begun. 

We must not simply breathe a sigh of relief and treat our new reality as business as usual – because there is no more business as usual. We have over-relied on our trade with the United States. What was a strength has now become a weakness. 

We shouldn’t be surprised if there’s a new American-created problem for us every 30 days. Not a crisis du jour, but maybe a crisis du mois. We cannot, must not, think of ourselves as a helpless victim.  We need to drop the figurative gloves and get into the fight for our own economic future.