Trump tariffs pose 'enormous risk' to Quebec economy, Legault says

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QUEBEC — Describing U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s 25 per cent tariff plan as a “bomb” landing on Quebec’s doorstep, Premier François Legault also repeated his call Tuesday for the federal government to tighten up border controls, saying Trump’s fears about the border are completely legitimate.

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And though he called for calm, Legault also said Quebec and Canada have to take Trump’s threats seriously because the impact on economies built around exports would be devastating across the board.

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Hundreds of thousands of jobs would be lost in Quebec and Canada if Trump picks off one industry after another, he said.

“We must not panic — we have to stay calm,” Legault said in his first remarks since Trump launched his tariff threat on Truth Social on Monday. “But we have to take the threats of Mr. Trump very, very, very seriously.

“Yes, Quebecers will pay dearly. The first thing Mr. (Justin) Trudeau must do, and we’ll talk about this tomorrow, is to secure the borders to eliminate that argument of Mr. Trump.

“The fears of Donald Trump on the borders are legitimate. I understand the problem is much worse on the Mexican border, but when we look at what’s been happening on the Canadian border over the last few years, there has been a significant increase in illegal immigrants passing through Canada to eventually land in the United States.”

Legault noted he started warning about border issues way back in 2017, often drawing ridicule from the federal government, which accused him of scare-mongering.

Today, Legault said, Trump is acting on what he said he would do throughout the U.S. election campaign and nobody can say they have been caught off guard.

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“More than ever, Mr. Trudeau needs to draw himself up a plan (for the border),” Legault said, setting the stage for Wednesday afternoon’s emergency virtual meeting between the prime minister and the premiers and territorial leaders.

Legault said his main demand at Wednesday’s meeting will be for Quebec to have its own representative at the table when Canada’s negotiations with the U.S. get underway. Besides wanting to protect its economic interests, Quebec will also want to protect its cultural industries from potential threats.

Legault started his day with a message on social media warning that the Trump tariffs pose an “enormous risk” to the Quebec and Canadian economies. At Tuesday’s news conference, he noted that while Quebec exports $87 billion in goods a year to the United States, it imports only $43 billion.

Leading Quebec exports that could be threatened include aluminum, softwood lumber and aircraft parts.

Earlier this month, Legault warned turbulence could follow if Trump acted on tariffs and his threats to deport millions of immigrants.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford was even more blunt than Legault, saying the tariff threat is “like a family member stabbing you right in the heart.” In Ontario, the big export is auto parts.

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On Monday, Ford sent a letter to Trudeau on behalf of Canada’s premiers calling for a meeting to discuss the U.S.-Canada trade situation.

Ford called for a “Team Canada approach to engaging with the incoming administration, including on trade, secure borders, energy, defence and the strength of our cross-border supply chains.”

On Truth Social, Trump said the 25 per cent import tariff on goods coming from Canada and Mexico would be imposed the day he takes office in January.

He said the tariffs would remain in effect until Canada and Mexico stop illegal border crossings and prevent drugs like fentanyl from entering the U.S.

Trudeau and Trump spoke about the issues Monday evening.

“We obviously talked about laying out the facts, talking about how the intense and effective connections between our two countries flow back and forth,” Trudeau said in Ottawa Tuesday, on his way into the weekly cabinet meeting.

“We talked about some of the challenges that we can work on together. It was a good call. This is something we can do, laying out the facts in constructive ways. This is a relationship we know takes a certain amount of working on, and that’s what we’ll do.”

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Quebec’s opposition leaders waded in Tuesday morning during their daily news conferences.

Interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay called on Legault to immediately name the person he wants at the negotiating table. He noted his predecessor Philippe Couillard had named former Quebec Liberal minister Raymond Bachand to a similar post during the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“Trump is being Trump,” said Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. “My fear today is for Quebec’s workers.”

Parti Québécois MNA Pascal Paradis linked the current situation to a lax attitude from the federal government toward secure border crossings between Canada and the United States.

When Trump was promising 10 per cent tariffs during the election campaign, economists predicted considerable damage to the Quebec economy if he came to power and acted on the threat.

Economists had predicted a 2.7 per cent drop in exports, leading to a one per cent drop in overall growth, if 10 per cent tariffs were imposed, noted Norma Kozhaya, chief economist at the Conseil du patronat du Québec, the province’s largest employer group.

At 25 per cent, the tariffs would jeopardize more than two million Canadian jobs — including 600,000 in Quebec — directly linked to the export economy, Kozhaya said Tuesday in an interview with The Gazette.

“Imagine,” Kozhaya said. “Of course we hope these tariffs won’t be put in place. We know this president is unpredictable anyway and it is a negotiating tactic, of course.”

Kozhaya welcomed the political reaction to the threat. She said Canada and Quebec have to demonstrate to the Americans that such tariffs will affect the U.S. economy as well and at the end of the day are “not at all in their interests.”

pauthier@postmedia.com

x.com/philipauthier

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