Conservative MP Randy Hoback spoke to business and community leaders briefly about managing the potential US trade tariffs. (Susan McNeil/paNOW Staff)

By Susan McNeil

Tariffs

Businesses told to look for opportunity in Trump chaos

Feb 5, 2025 | 5:00 PM

A short speech from Conservative MP Randy Hoback had members of the Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce listening intently for any clues as to what might come next in the potential Canada/U.S. trade war.

Hoback’s talk on Tuesday, Feb. 4, was indicative of the state of affairs.

“Whoever knows what Trump is going to do next, raise your hand,” he said. His comments reflected a growing consensus that Canada needs to find new partners to trade with as the next four years will be chaos in the United States.

“That bankable partner you have for the next four years is not the bankable partner you used to know,” he said.

Hoback’s role in the Conservative caucus is as deputy shadow minister for trade but focused solely on the U.S.

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In times of chaos, however, there are also times of opportunity and that’s what businesses and people should look for, he said, emphasizing the one-month window to find alternatives to suppliers from south of the border.

That has happened in the past and helped create the existing thriving tech centre in Toronto after laid off employees from the United States were actively recruited there.

Hoback said that whatever Trump is doing in his effort to reshape the U.S. government, Canada’s job has remained the same, the path to get there just needs to change.

“We really don’t know what he may or may not do but we do know what we have to do. Those haven’t changed whether it was Donald Trump in the White House or Joseph Biden. We need to get our resources to market so we need to repeal legislations that prevents that from happening,” he said.

Saskatchewan’s biggest exports are the crops it grows but producers diversified years ago and sell more and more to markets like Asia.

When it comes to oil and gas, the situation is more complicated. Quebec gets its propane from a reversible pipeline that exports oil and gas offshore. But if that were unavailable, they would be cold quickly.

“We have a huge risk by not having those types of projects moving forward and it’s in their own best interest to see them happen,” Hoback said.

The American tariff threat should serve as a wake-up call to Canadians to look for other markets to do business with, he said.

Canada has a lot of trade agreements with other countries and Hoback suggested it’s time to make use of them.

“We have more trade agreements than any other country in the world,” he said. “I think its time to blow the dust of those and recognizing that maybe we don’t have that comfortable partner south of us anymore.”

A tariff is just another word for tax, but they are placed on imported goods, said Cheryl Loadman, a professor at the Edwards School of Business at the University of Saskatchewan.

The impact of the tariff is amplified every time a product crosses a border, something that automotive parts do multiple times.

A push by leaders to have people focus on buying Canadian goods is not as simple as it seems because of that fact and the inter-connected Canada/U.S. market.

“Canadian raw or partially finished materials cross the border every day to be value added in the U.S. market and resold into Canada,” she said. “For example, Saskatchewan oil is shipped into the U.S. to be refined and come back into Canada; our grain exports become cereal which we might buy in Canada as a made-in-the-U.S. product. We also have many U.S.-owned companies that manufacture in Canada.”

Heinz is an American company, but 1,000 Canadians work at its ketchup producing facility in Quebec, which also uses Canadian tomatoes to make the product.

Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a one-month delay to the start of tariffs, giving Canadians and Mexico time to come up with alternative plans before March 1.

Now is not the time for Canadians to throw their hands in the air and give up, Hoback said.

“You’ve always got to find opportunities in the chaos We got lots of opportunities, lots of options. Just take a step back and relook at things and see what you can or can’t do and manage the risk as best you can,” he said.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social