Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland told steelworkers they are “personally very special” to her as she pledged support for Canadian-made metal, but avoided mentioning Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola or taxpayer financing of ships built in China.“Steel and aluminum are foundational to Canada,” Freeland said at a meeting with industry and union executives on Tuesday. “Steel is about jobs and the people who make the steel. It is also about our national economic security and our national security.” Blacklock's Reporter says she added that the products and the people who produce them were “actually, personally very special to me” since her time renegotiating NAFTA..China recently imposed a 75.8% tariff on all Canadian canola exports, following a 100% tariff on canola oil and meal. The move came in retaliation for Ottawa’s 25% tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum. Freeland made no mention of the trade dispute, insisting instead that “at the end of the day this is about Canadian jobs and Canadian workers.”Nor did she reference the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s $1.1 billion loan to BC Ferries for the purchase of four new vessels from China’s state-owned Weihai Shipyards. .The 1.8% loan, only disclosed publicly in June, has drawn criticism from MPs who want it revoked. Freeland herself told the Commons transport committee last month she was “troubled” by the procurement.While pledging urgency in defending Canada’s steel and aluminum industries from U.S. tariffs, Freeland argued the country must quickly “get really, really good at using the steel and aluminum we are so good at producing” across transportation and other sectors.
