Good morning.

Thank you, Minister Joly. Ministers Champagne, MacDonald, Hajdu, Dabrusin, and Lightbound. Secretary Zerucelli.

Thank you for joining us today.

Over the past few days, the federal cabinet convened in North York – with a clear focus on delivering the government’s overarching mission to build Canada’s economic strength in the face of unprecedented change.

Here at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, we are surrounded by examples of that strength.

With state-of-the-art manufacturing and assembly expertise, Canadian skill and ingenuity, and a supply chain that makes heavy use of Canadian materials such as Québec aluminum, the workers in this facility are building more than aircraft, they are building a stronger future for Canadians.

As Canada’s new government looks to the future, we remain focused on one priority: empowering our workers to seize it. We are:

• Doubling the pace of housing construction over the next decade;
• Accelerating major projects of national interest;
• Implementing a new industrial defence strategy by rebuilding, rearming, and reinvesting in our Armed Forces; and
• Staying the course on three clear objectives: protecting our communities, securing our borders, and reducing the cost of living.

The world is changing.

The largest economy, the United States, is fundamentally reshaping all its trading relationships.

From an age when free trade was a motor of global economic growth, we have entered an age of economic nationalism and mercantilism.

The effective U.S. tariff rate is now the highest it has been since the Great Depression in the 1930s, and these tariffs are being applied to all countries and nearly all goods.

The changes in the U.S. policy go beyond tariffs.

Countries must now “buy access to the world’s largest economy” through investments, unilateral trade liberalization, and policy changes in their home markets.

And all the while, the transformation of global trade is occurring against a backdrop of wide economic disruptions: geopolitical realignment, AI and technological transformations, and a shift to a greener economy.

This is not a transition, it’s a rupture – and the effect will be profound.

• Workers will be displaced;
• Supply chains will be disrupted; and
• Companies will be forced to change where they source their materials and products.

This combination is causing extreme uncertainty that is holding back massive amounts of investment.

To be clear, Canada currently has the best deal of any U.S. trading partner.

Eighty-five per cent of our trade with the United States is tariff-free.

And we have the lowest average tariff of any country in the world.

Yet we cannot rely on our most important trade relationship as we once did.

Free trade has long been a pillar of the Canadian economy.

For decades, our growing participation in the U.S. market has been one of the foundations of our economic strength.

Trade accounts for nearly two thirds of Canada’s gross domestic product.

Sectors like automotive, steel, and aluminum send more than 90% of their exports to the United States – and in many cases, their supply chains are interdependent.

These sectors are vital to our economy because of the scale of their production, the careers they create, and the communities they support.

What was once one of Canada’s strengths has now become a vulnerability.

This disruption calls for a new, bold approach.

Given we cannot control what other nations do, Canada’s new government is focused on what we can control: Building our strength at home. Building Canada Strong.

That means retraining our workers, transforming our strategic sectors, creating entirely new industries, and being our own best customer by buying Canadian.

To these ends, Canada’s new government is embarking on an ambitious plan to secure a new era of prosperity out of the ashes of adversity.

Our new industrial strategy will transform our economy – from being overly reliant on the U.S., to one that is more resilient to global shocks. A new economy built on the solid foundation of Canadian industries and bolstered by diverse international trade partners.

To drive this transformation:

• We have just launched the Major Projects Office to fast-track nation-building projects;
• We will launch Build Canada Homes later this month, a new government entity that will help double the pace of housing construction over the next decade while creating a new industry using Canadian technology, Canadian workers, and Canadian lumber;
• We will unveil a new Defence Industrial Strategy this fall so that our defence investments support the growth of industries;
• This month, we will begin our negotiations of a new defence and security partnership with the European Union and launch a new Trade Diversification Strategy to develop new export markets; and
• We will soon release our Climate Competitiveness Strategy to position Canada as a leader.

As Canada’s new government embarks on these missions, we will work to ensure Canadian workers and businesses have the tools they need to drive this transformation.

Let me be clear.

If we want our economy to grow – with thriving careers at home and booming exports around the world – we must once again be a country that builds. That builds big. And builds fast.

Because entrepreneurs, builders, dreamers power our economy.

They are the engines of growth.

The strategic industries that are heavily impacted by tariffs – steel, lumber, aluminum, copper, and other resource sectors – built Canada. They will be central to our future competitiveness in a world of major infrastructure investment, defence and security, and unprecedented acceleration in homebuilding.

And government’s role right now – our duty – is to make sure our builders have what they need to succeed.

To give them the greater certainty of the scale of opportunity.

Because when they face calculated risks rather than unknowable uncertainty, when Canadian builders and innovators thrive, the whole country rises with them – with higher wages, lower costs, and a stronger economy.

To fortify our economic strength, I am announcing today a series of ambitious new measures to protect, build, and transform Canada’s strategic industries.

These are the sectors where workers and businesses have been most impacted by tariffs and trade disruptions.

Building on our government’s recent initiatives to transform Canada’s steel and lumber sectors, the measures we are announcing today will help workers acquire new skills, businesses retool their production and diversify their products and markets, while spurring more domestic demand for Canadian businesses.

First and foremost, we are supporting Canadian workers so they can drive Canada’s economic transformation with new skills and training, and seize the exciting, high-paying careers it will create.

To build a strong, confident workforce that can propel our economy forward, the government is:

• Introducing a new, robust reskilling package to train 50,000 workers. This package will include new methods such as employer-based training and targeted outreach to workers;
• Automatically enrolling Employment Insurance claimants to our jobs-matching platform, introducing a new platform with a “skills-to-job” tool to make job searches easier and to match people more quickly to new jobs, connecting them to training opportunities and career counselling;
• Leveraging digital technologies and AI to help working Canadians find training courses, supported by partnerships with companies such as Indeed, Jobillico, Career Beacon, Zip Recruiter, and eCampus Ontario;
• Launching new Workforce Alliances across industries, unions, and government to co-ordinate recruiting and retraining efforts; and
• Adapting the Employment Insurance system to provide a bridge to laid-off workers, giving them time to pivot. This will include providing long-tenured workers with up to 65 weeks of benefits – 20 more weeks than they have access to today – and waiving the one-week waiting period for over 700,000 claimants.

The second major initiative that we are announcing today is a new $5 billion Strategic Response Fund to help Canadian businesses adapt, diversify, and build our new economy.

That Fund will have three core objectives:

• To help businesses to pivot to new products and markets;
• To retain skills and production in Canada; and
• To position businesses to be globally competitive.

Businesses could use these funds to invest in the design of new products, retool plants to boost productivity, or offset the costs of accessing new markets.

The Fund will be open to all sectors given the wide-ranging impact across Canadian industries of current and potential future tariffs.

Priority will be given to projects from sectors most affected by tariffs, including steel, aluminum, automotive, and softwood lumber.

The Strategic Response Fund will work closely with our new Workforce Alliances to ensure that these investment projects are not held back by labour market challenges.

Through better co-ordination between workers and industry, we will be able to effectively train and match workers to their new jobs in the sectors of tomorrow.

Third, we will introduce a comprehensive Buy Canadian Policy.

We are on a mission to build Canada strong through major infrastructure projects, a modern defence industry, and millions more homes.

In that mission, the public sector can serve as an anchor customer for Canadian businesses.

To do so, things must change.

Canada’s public procurement is following the outdated rules of a liberal economic order that no longer exists.

For years, we have been buying significantly from foreign suppliers for short term gain. Now, we need to use government procurement, using Canadian taxpayer dollars, to spur Canadian businesses for longer-term prosperity.

To support Canadian industries, the government is introducing a new comprehensive Buy Canadian Policy that will:

• Move from “best efforts” to buy Canadian, toward a clear obligation to buy Canadian;
• Require local content and purchases from trusted partners when Canadian suppliers are truly unavailable. Those cases will be the exception, not the norm. They will have to be approved by ministers;
• Apply this approach beyond a narrow definition of the federal government to all federal agencies and crown corporations – leveraging every dollar the federal government spends and invests; and
• Cut red tape and simplify access for businesses to access federal procurement opportunities.

This approach can serve as a roadmap that can be adopted by provinces, territories, and municipalities.

Canada is a proud supporter of free trade agreements.

We will uphold them and continue to strengthen them with reliable partners.

At the same time, we must make better use of our own resources.

In the European Union, three quarters of the steel used is produced domestically.

Canada, by contrast, often exports nearly 60% of its raw materials and then imports the finished products.

With these changes in procurement, we will build more with more Canadian steel, Canadian lumber, and Canadian technology.

We will build big. Build bold. Build Canadian.

Fourth, we will provide immediate liquidity relief to businesses.

I mentioned earlier, the new trade environment is a rupture – immense change in a short point of time.

As a result, many businesses that have relied most heavily on trade with the U.S., will need temporary, immediate relief from liquidity pressures.

Businesses need time to reposition themselves for the future.

For small and medium-sized businesses, the Business Development Bank of Canada will increase its maximum loan size from $2 million to $5 million.

For larger businesses, the Large Enterprise Tariff Loan Facility will provide flexible financing with lower interest rates and for longer maturities.

These changes will be implemented immediately to ensure businesses can bridge the gap to the future.

To add flexibility for the automotive sector, we will remove the 2026 Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, which specifies the share of new vehicle sales that must be electric next year.

This will provide immediate financial relief to automakers at a time of increased pressures on economic competitiveness.

The government will also immediately begin a 60-day review of the EV standard to identify future flexibilities and reduce costs.

And we will advance new options to bring more affordable electric vehicles to Canadians.

Fifth, we will act to protect Canada’s agriculture and seafood industries.

Canadian Canola has been hit with Chinese tariffs. Canadian beef has also been subject to unjustified Chinese trade actions since 2021. Canadian lobster since March of this year.

To strengthen Canada’s agricultural and seafood sectors, the government will:

• Introduce new biofuel production incentives, providing more than $370 million to assist domestic producers and restructure their value chains;
• Make targeted amendments to the Clean Fuel Regulations to spur the development of a vibrant biofuels industry in Canada; and
• Increase loan limits for Canola producers to $500,000 and invest in AgriMarketing and trade diversification measures to support our agriculture and seafood sectors.

In March, our government announced a Regional Tariff Response Initiative for small and medium-sized businesses affected by U.S. tariffs.

The goal was clear: to stimulate investment, bring new products to market, and adopt innovative technologies.

Today, we are going further. We are expanding this program by:

• Increasing funding from $450 million to $1 billion;
• Extending repayment terms up to nine years; and
• Offering new non-repayable contributions, up to $1 million, across all sectors – including agriculture and seafood.

The Canadian economy relies on small and medium-sized businesses.

And if we want to build the economy of tomorrow, they will need to invest heavily.

The mission that guides us – the North Star of this government – is building lasting economic strength.

With economic uncertainty making it challenging for the private sector to invest, we must act.

The government is meeting this moment with the most comprehensive suite of trade resilience measures in Canadian history.

These measures are built on five guiding principles:

• Focus on the future – to ensure workers and businesses have the tools they need to pivot to new opportunities;
• Widespread application – the programs are broad in scope because of the scale and breadth of the disruption to global trade;
• Flexibility – the initiatives will be adapted as needed to changing circumstances;
• Accessibility – programs will be simple to access, red tape cut to a minimum; and
• Co-operation – provinces and territories will have important roles to play. This national effort requires cost sharing and collaboration across levels of government.

These new measures will provide our industries and workers with the tools they need to build a stronger future – a future where Canada’s economy will rely less on a single trading partner and built on solid foundations: a strong Canadian market, robust Canadian demand, and diversified trading partnerships.

Throughout Canada’s history, we have turned challenges into opportunities.

Canadians built transcontinental railways to open new markets for wheat and timber.

We retooled entire sectors to fight for freedom during the Second World War.

Then we built hundreds of thousands of new homes in record time for the returning heroes and their families.

We’ve built new seaways to unlock the potential of the Great Lakes economy.

We forged new trade links for steel and lumber when old markets closed.

And now, at this moment of profound change, we bear the same responsibilities and should hold the same ambitions.

To become the strongest economy in the G7, Canada must act now. Invest now. Precisely when it’s hard.

We are charting an economic strategy to move Canada from reliance to resilience, from uncertainty to prosperity.

By supporting our workers, our businesses, and our industries, we will build a strong Canada.

Thank you.