Tires are Nova Scotia's biggest U.S. export, and this town runs on them

CBC

5 days ago

After work, Mal Haley likes to watch the sun rise over Nova Scotia's LaHave River — it's a calming routine after 12 hours of intense heat and piercing alarms.
Haley watches the sunlight-tinted water charge toward the Atlantic on her drive home after an overnight shift at the Michelin tire factory.
Once, the river gave the town life. Today, it's Michelin that keeps Bridgewater afloat.
Haley is exhausted. Twenty-four hours before, she roused her three-year-old son William, took him to daycare and got on with the day's chores. She hasn't slept since.
All her life, Haley has called Bridgewater home. She's worked at the Michelin factory for almost 10 years. Now 28, one-third of her life has been spent making tires.
Despite the long hours, Haley likes her job. She even prefers working nights. Making a living at Michelin lets her spend time with friends and family — her best friend and uncle both work there. Inside the factory, she manages a crew of five people and a 4.5-metre-high tire-making machine. The responsibility, though stressful, is satisfying.
But stress has been building since Jan. 20, when Donald Trump was sworn in as U.S. president. He is pressing corporations to move to the U.S., raising concerns that Michelin may go south.
A company town
In Bridgewater, 1,270 people work at the Michelin plant. The French king of tires issues cheques to more than 25 per cent of the town's working-age people.
Every company town is an ecosystem, says Dalhousie University economics professor Stephane Mechoulan. If the company falters, the entire town suffers.
The factory — capable of producing 7,500 tires daily — is the centrepiece of Nova Scotia's manufacturing industry. Rubber is the province's largest export, thanks to Michelin's tires. In 2023, tire exports to the United States from Nova Scotia were around $1.2 billion.
That's $139,000 worth of tires exported to the United States every hour, all year round.
When Trump began talking tariffs on Canadian goods earlier this year, it spurred many questions. Will it be business as usual for the world's leading tire manufacturer? Will there be layoffs in Nova Scotia? Or the worst-case scenario — could Trump's belligerence prompt a relocation to the United States?
So far, Michelin tires have been largely spared from Trump's tariffs. But given the fluid events of the past few months, it's not surprising Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston is currently in France to meet directly with Michelin.
Nova Scotia has three Michelin factories. Since 1971, Bridgewater has been home to the largest; the others are in Granton, near New Glasgow, and Waterville, in the Annapolis Valley.
At nearly one million square feet — 59 hockey rinks — in size, you can't miss the Bridgewater plant from Highway 103. In fact, it has its own exit.
Globally, Michelin is valued at $35.9 billion. Mechoulan believes it can afford to take a financial hit. But it has no obligation to. If Michelin pulls the plug or slows down production, Mechoulan predicts Bridgewater would experience "a chain reaction of doom."
Inside the plant
At 6:15 p.m. the next day, Haley pulls into the plant's parking lot 45 minutes before she's scheduled to work. She then scans her key card and passes through a turnstile — one of few gaps in a fence topped with barbed wire. Above the entrance is a sign reading WE MANUFACTURE THE FUTURE.
Haley arrives early because she likes to chat with co-workers in one of the factory's many break rooms. It's a small space dressed up with chairs, a table, and Michelin rules and terminology from floor to ceiling. The people she sits with are more than friends; she sees them more often "than my own family."
Haley isn't "overly concerned" about the future that Michelin employees proudly manufacture. But she's aware the situation is volatile.
"God knows what could happen," she says.
Haley trusts higher-ups to sort it out. In the meantime, the tires won't make themselves.
Growing up, Haley thought of Michelin and Bridgewater as intertwined. Everybody knows it's a tire town. Her dad's best friend Deryck Bolivar works for Michelin. Still, she didn't realize "how many people work at Michelin until you start running into them," says Haley.
"Pretty much any time I go to Walmart, I run into someone from work."
At Michelin, Bolivar was Haley's first boss. His familiar face, coupled with helpful tips and tricks, made adjusting to a demanding new job a little easier.
In one of her first meetings with the team, Bolivar accidentally referred to Haley by a childhood moniker — Princess. In the factory, the nickname stuck for years. On occasion, she's still referred to as Princess — in addition to a more recent nickname, Trouble.
As troubling times loom over Canada, Haley remains optimistic. For hope, she looks to Michelin's investment in Bridgewater. The plant just completed a $300-million expansion — $194.4 million came from Michelin, with the remainder from the provincial and federal governments.
Michelin "poured so much money into our plant," Haley says. "They'll do their best to keep it open."
Driving new roads
Francois Michelin picked Nova Scotia to be the home of his company's first foray into North America in 1969 (there are now 35 production facilities, including six in Nova Scotia and Quebec).
Today, Michelin North America's head office is in Greenville, S.C. — a conservative, Republican state. About 70 per cent of what Michelin sells in the U.S. is built in the U.S., but that goes up to 85 per cent when Canada is included, the company said in a recent call with analysts.
Since its arrival in Canada, Michelin has become Nova Scotia's largest private-sector employer and a crucial trading asset. Across the province, 3,600 people depend on the tire manufacturer to feed themselves and their families.
The company offers all employees a defined-contribution pension, dental coverage and, after one year of work, 3.8 weeks of vacation — plus free tires.
Its communities and employees like to say that Michelin is generous and accommodating. No mascot appears gentler than the Michelin Man. But the company has also generated controversy in the province.
In 1979 — to chants of "Shame!" in the legislature — a Nova Scotia Conservative government passed an amendment to the Trade Union Act, which became known as the Michelin Bill. The bill decreed that in order to unionize, any company with multiple locations in Nova Scotia must sign up a majority of employees across all locations. The Opposition and public protested the bill in response.
The bill was drafted during an effort to unionize by employees in Granton, and Michelin is never specifically mentioned in the legislation. The day after the bill was passed, a new Michelin plant in Waterville was announced.
The Nova Scotia NDP had long declared that if elected, it would repeal the Michelin Bill. But once elected to power in 2009, NDP Premier Darrell Dexter didn't follow through. He told the press he had "no interest in fighting battles that happened 30 years ago."
The Nova Scotia government has gone to great lengths to keep Michelin in the province. To build the plants, a Nova Scotia Crown corporation spent more money than Michelin itself.
The town's response
Overlooking the LaHave River from his office, Bridgewater Mayor David Mitchell says he believes Michelin is as devoted to the town as employees are to the company. He has staunch faith in the company anchoring his small town.
Mitchell is more worried about a production slowdown than a shutdown. For every layoff at Michelin, multiple people would feel the effect.
"1,200 jobs is about 8,000 to 12,000 indirect jobs," he says.
Whether it's the people driving the 100 trucks coming in and out of the plant daily, or local restaurants and shops, more than just plant workers would bear the burden.
Mitchell likens the current political and economic tension to an animal storing food for the winter. The only difference? The animal doesn't know if winter is actually coming.
"Do you start tucking away your money and preparing for a slowdown?" Mitchell asks.
"Or is it all a bluff that's going to go away?"