Mayors of Quebec aluminum towns say they are confident their regions can withstand the 25 per cent tariffs imposed on the metal by U.S. President Donald Trump, with many saying it's business as usual.
Layoffs aren't expected at Aluminerie Alouette in Sept-Îles, Que., a major aluminum producer with some 950 employees, says the town's mayor, Denis Miousse. The company, which describes itself as the biggest aluminum smelter on the continent, can find new export markets if demand weakens in the U.S., he said.
"Aluminerie Alouette can quickly turn and export to Asia, export everywhere in the world without really disturbing its operations," said Miousse, who added that he still takes seriously the threat of job losses in the region along the northern shore of the St. Lawrence River.
About 170 kilometres southwest in Baie-Comeau, Que., Mayor Michel Desbiens, himself a former employee at the local smelter, says "nothing has changed." Aluminum in his town, he said, "is being sold just as it was before Mr. Trump."
Desbiens says his town isn't panicking and no jobs have been lost so far, but he adds that Trump's tariffs will lead to price increases on both sides of the border for products composed of aluminum.
On Wednesday Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on all aluminum and steel entering the U.S., leading to retaliatory tariffs by Canada of 25 per cent on $29.8 billion worth of American goods. Quebec is the continent's biggest producer of aluminum, with 30,000 people employed in the sector. About 90 per cent of Canadian aluminum output is shipped south of the border.
Patrick Bouillé, mayor of Deschambault-Grondines, Que., southwest of Quebec City, says the Alcoa smelter in town employs about 500 people — it is responsible for many more indirect jobs in the region — making the plant a major driver of the local economy. The tariffs, he said, have so far not made a real dent in operations.
"We're pretty confident in coming out OK," he said, adding that the U.S. needs the high-grade aluminum that Quebec supplies.
"There's not really a lot of concern," he said. “Mr. Trump is shooting himself in the foot.”
The City of Saguenay, a major hub for aluminum production, says it isn’t aware of any layoffs so far either.
But while many Quebec mayors say their municipalities haven’t experienced a downturn, one company on Montreal's South Shore says it's feeling the sting. Cyrill AMP, which specializes in architectural panels for buildings, says that since the tariffs went into effect, it has been forced to lay off 10 of its 80 workers and shorten the work week to 35 hours from 40.
David Théroux, the company’s general manager, blames a reduction in purchase orders and contracts from the U.S., a market that accounts for up to half of the business. One of those lost contracts was worth US$1.5 million.
“We know we lost that project because of the uncertainty,” he said, adding that the contract was awarded to a U.S. company instead.
Théroux says he was hiring up until December and may rehire some of the laid off workers if the situation stabilizes. However, any increase in tariffs above 25 per cent may mean more layoffs.
Jean-Thomas Bernard, visiting professor in the department of economics at the University of Ottawa, says smelters that produce primary, unprocessed aluminum, like many of the factories in Quebec, are less vulnerable to tariffs or price fluctuations compared with aluminum processors, like Cyrill AMP. In Quebec, primary aluminum producers also tend to have longer-term contracts, Bernard added.
Trump may be using tariffs to incentivize domestic production of primary aluminum, but the United States doesn’t have access to Quebec’s abundance of hydroelectricity, the key resource that has allowed the province to produce vast quantities of the metal.
According to Natural Resources Canada, Quebec was home to nine of the 10 primary aluminum smelters in the country in 2023, and globally Canada ranked fourth in primary aluminum production behind China, India, and Russia.
