The USW represents 225,000 members in Canada and 800,000 total across North America. The USW is one of Canada’s most diverse unions, representing workers in every sector of the economy, from agriculture and forestry to manufacturing and health care, telecommunications and accommodation and food services.
While we represent workers in virtually every sector of the economy and in every geographical region of the country, the historical base of our union has always been in resource extraction and manufacturing, such as steel, aluminum, cement and manufactured goods.
U.S. tariffs on Canadian export goods pose a significant challenge to the livelihood of our members. The USW welcomes the opportunity to share our recommendations for Budget 2025 with the federal government.
Budget 2025 occurs amid a historic threat to Canada’s economic and political sovereignty. As U.S. President Donald Trump has made clear, U.S. tariffs on Canadian-manufactured goods, particularly steel, aluminum and automotive products, are designed to reshore production and capacity to the United States and undermine Canada’s industrial capacity.
These tariffs are already having a negative impact on thousands of Canadian workers through permanent and temporary layoffs and capacity shutdowns. The continued threat of additional tariffs on key Canadian exports, such as timber and lumber, copper, critical minerals and commercial airlines and trucks, threatens additional losses to jobs and our domestic mineral processing and manufacturing capacity. The manufacturing sector is under severe threat and, as such, it raises important questions about Canada’s reliance on the U.S. market and the viability of Canada’s export-oriented economic model.
A threat of this magnitude requires a strong fiscal response that is up to the challenge. Budget 2025 must be transformational. In the short to medium term, this budget must mitigate and stabilize the tariff “shock” to the Canadian economy by supporting workers’ incomes and employment linkages, whilst laying out an economic plan that ensures the Canadian economy is insulated from external trade-related shocks.
The USW has long called for robust industrial policies to support our economy and build domestic economic resilience. We welcome the government’s plan to build our defence industrial base, infrastructure and its engagement in national building projects that leverage Canadian-manufactured goods and services and enhance our sovereignty. However, in its endeavour to do so, the federal government must ensure it abides by its constitutional commitments to consult with Indigenous peoples and ensure nation-building projects include Indigenous peoples as partners. Now is the time for the federal government to engage and unify all Canadians and Indigenous peoples towards a bold and new national economic vision.
However, the USW is extremely concerned with the government’s proposed deep cuts to the public service to pay for this increased spending. Engaging in cuts to the public service during a period of exogenous economic shock is counterintuitive to the government’s role in providing countercyclical economic support. More importantly, such cuts will inevitably impact public service delivery, ultimately leaving Canadians worse off.
Instead, the USW believes that in times of economic crisis, the federal government should look to strengthen public services and programs, such as national pharmacare, child care and dental care. However, if measures which rationalize and improve efficiency in the public service are required, these should be done in conjunction with workers and their representatives gradually, to minimize impacts to public service employees and ensure the ongoing delivery of high-quality public services to Canadians.
See the document in full below.
DownloadRequest this file in a different format