Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley urges city residents to strap in for the long haul as U.S. tariffs took effect Tuesday and Canada announced it will retaliate with tariffs of its own.
Recommended Videos
“It is going to be extremely painful, not just for the Americans but for us,” Bradley said.
The Sarnia area, home to oil refineries and chemical producers as well as farms and other businesses depending on trade, is connected with Michigan by the Blue Water Bridge, plus a railway tunnel and pipelines also crossing the St. Clair River.
Canadians “are going to be in this for the long haul,” Bradley said. “It is going to be relentless.”
Bradley expects the trade war to continue through the four years of U.S. President Donald Trump’s term.
“We got through a recession, we got through inflation, high interest rates, and now all the issues in our economy are being created by the president of the United States,” Bradley said.
“I think it’s going to take quite some time to get Americans to understand that they’re basically cutting their own throat by supporting tariffs.”
Greg Moffatt, chief executive of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada, said previously tariffs will be “painful” for the industry.
Ontario exports $3 billion in chemicals and $9 billion in plastics, mostly to the U.S., he said.
Sarnia and neighbouring St. Clair Township are home to three refineries and about 35 chemical plants the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership describes as Canada’s “second-largest cluster” of petrochemical industries.
Imperial Oil, a Canadian affiliate of Exxon-Mobil, Suncor, Shell, Nova Chemicals, Cabot, Plains Midstream, Arlanxeo and CF Industries have manufacturing sites in the community, down the road from Oil Springs, where oil was found in the 1850s.
Pipelines run in and out of the Sarnia area delivering oil and natural gas liquids from Western Canada and natural gas liquids from the eastern U.S., and shipping products to customers in other regions.
“The Chemistry Industry Association of Canada and its members are deeply concerned about these U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports and the potential impact of retaliatory measures,” it said Tuesday in a statement.
“Canada and the U.S. have long enjoyed a strong, mutually beneficial trade relationship that supports jobs and ensures the efficient movement of good critical to economic stability on both sides of the border,” the association said.
While the immediate impact on Sarnia’s chemical producers remain uncertain, tariffs will increase costs and disrupt supply chains for the industries and their customers, the association said.
“Given the region’s reliance on integrated North American trade, prolonged uncertainty could pose significant challenges for both large multinationals and small businesses,” in particular for plastics industries, the statement said.
“We urge all parties to work toward a swift resolution to minimize economic disruption and maintain the strength of this essential trade partnership.”
After announcing tariffs on Canada and Mexico soon after taking office, Trump paused them for 30 days while talks continued but that reprieve ended this week.
“The hope has long been that this situation would ultimately be avoided,” said Matthew Slotwinski, chief executive of the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership.
“There has been tremendous uncertainty for businesses while they’ve waited to hear the outcome,” and that uncertainty impacted businesses as much as the tariffs themselves.
“At least, at this point, companies are aware of what they’ll be dealing with,” for a period of time, Slotwinski said.
But he said, “this is going to impact on many major and established businesses in the Sarnia-Lambton area” relying on exports, including its farms and other manufacturers with customers in the U.S.
“That cost will either be passed along to their customers or they’re going to have to identify alternative markets so they can be competitive.”
The partnership, an agency funded by Lambton County to attract business investment to the area, is looking for ways to “bring forward resources for local industry, small businesses (and) those that will be impacted,” he said.
That includes a potential “forum to bring together major employers, economic development leaders, local politicians to identify what can Sarnia-Lambton do so we can limit the impacts of tariffs,” Slotwinski said.