Quebec companies announce layoffs ahead of Trump tariffs

CBC

05-02-2025

Quebec manufacturers are announcing layoffs, saying U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated threats of tariffs, now expected to come into effect in a month, are already affecting sales.
The U.S. is Quebec's top trading partner, with most manufacturers in the province trading and selling to American companies and consumers.
Montreal-based tights manufacturer Sheertex (SRTX), now a publicly traded company, announced on LinkedIn Wednesday morning it would be temporarily laying off 40 per cent of its 350 employees in preparation for the tariffs.
Katherine Homuth, the company's CEO and founder, wrote that although the U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods are planned at 25 per cent, SRTX is facing 41 per cent tariffs across its U.S. shipments due to additional duty fees it faces.
"We are in a worst case scenario," Homuth wrote, explaining that the company's tights cannot be considered to be made in Canada because SRTX imports more than nine per cent of its raw materials.
The company is using the 30-day delay on tariffs — announced after a phone call between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump Monday — to move some of its inventory to the U.S., where Sheertex does 85 per cent of its sales.
The layoffs are temporary but come at a time when SRTX has been fundraising additional capital to stay afloat.
"If you believe in the importance of making things here, in building not just brands, but the factories and technologies that power them, now is the time to stand with manufacturers," Homuth wrote.
Another up and coming Quebec manufacturer, furniture-maker South Shore, also announced on Wednesday that it would be laying off 115 employees.
In a news release, the company said 70 per cent of its sales are conducted in the U.S. and that it had seen those plummet in the face of Trump's tariff threats.
It said the threats had prompted the company's American buyers to increase their imports of Asian products. The layoffs include 97 jobs at South Shore's head office plant in Sainte-Croix, a town 200 kilometres northeast of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River. Another 18 employees at South Shore's Coaticook plant in the Eastern Townships will be affected.
"South Shore is calling on consumers to turn massively to Canadian products to collectively face this unprecedented situation," the news release said.
The company, which was founded in 1940, noted it had already survived several economic crises and that it intended to review its current business model.
Uniboard, a Laval-based wood products manufacturer, said Tuesday it would be temporarily closing five production lines at its plant in Sayabec in the Gaspésie region.
Fifteen employees will lose their jobs, which CEO James Hogg said represented less than 10 per cent of the company's roughly 400-employee workforce.
He attributed the layoffs to the uncertainty caused by U.S. tariff threats.
"We don't know exactly what the customer reactions are going to be. Are they going to cancel orders? Are they going to put things on hold? Those are all [reactions] we've seen since Sunday," Hogg said.
Hogg said he hopes the company will be able to resume its normal operations if Trump drops his tariffs idea.