A team of Canadian businesspeople, including tech founders and venture capital (VC) investors, have been tapped by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to lead Canada’s response to the threat of potentially devastating 25-percent tariffs imposed by the US.
Council members are being asked to leverage their expertise to support the Prime Minister and Cabinet in crafting a plan to deal with the potential outcomes of US tariffs.
A handful of Canadian tech and investment leaders were appointed to the 18-person Council on Canada-U.S. Relations. Dragon’s Den investors Arlene Dickinson and Wes Hall will both serve on the panel. Dickinson is the CEO of Venturepark and the managing general partner of Toronto-based District Ventures Capital, which invests in food, health, and wellness startups.
Hall is the founder of Toronto-based private equity firm WeShall Investments and the BlackNorth Initiative, which aims to remove systemic barriers for Black entrepreneurs in Canada. He was also recently appointed as Chancellor of the University of Toronto.
As for tech CEOs, the panel includes Shahrzad Rafati, the CEO of Vancouver-based media tech firm RHEI (formerly BBTV). Trudeau had previously appointed Rafati as a Canadian representative on the G20 Business Women Leader’s task force in 2018, and as co-chair of G20 EMPOWER, a private-sector alliance for women in leadership roles in 2020.
The council includes business leaders such as Tabatha Bull, president and CEO of the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business, and Tim Gitzel, CEO of uranium company Cameco. Labour leaders and three ex-premiers were also appointed, including Unifor president Lana Payne, former Québec premier Jean Charest, former Alberta premier Rachel Notley, and former Nova Scotia premier Stephen McNeil.
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Council members are being asked to leverage their expertise to support the Prime Minister and Cabinet in crafting a plan to deal with the potential outcomes of US tariffs on goods that Canadians export to the US.
Incoming US President-Elect Donald Trump has repeatedly said he would impose 25-percent tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican imports when he takes office Monday. Trump said he would impose the tariffs until the countries do more to prevent the flow of migrants and drugs across the US border.
According to The Globe and Mail, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson said today that Trump is considering three options: 25-percent tariffs on Canadian imports, 10-percent tariffs on imports from all countries, or a lower tariff that grows over time.
The first outcome would have severe impacts on the Canadian economy, as it would put a tax on more than $1 trillion worth of Canadian goods exported to the US every year. The government of British Columbia estimated that these tariffs could incur losses of $69 billion in economic activity from now to 2028. Québec’s minister of the economy said the government could provide direct support to companies affected by trade tariffs.
The federal government pledged to put aside $1.3 billion to secure its border with the US in its fall economic statement, but Trump’s incoming administration has not indicated this plan would deter his decision.
Feature image courtesy Justin Trudeau via Flickr.