Latest news with #LesBoisésLafleur
CBC
13-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
Are you paying more than before to buy Canadian?; Tariff travel trauma: CBC's Marketplace Cheat Sheet
Miss something this week? Don't panic. CBC's Marketplace rounds up the consumer and health news you need. Want this in your inbox? Get the Marketplace newsletter every Friday. Are you paying more than before to buy Canadian? Experts say it's complicated In late January, then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and the country's premiers urged people to "choose Canada" by purchasing Canadian products amid the growing threat of U.S. tariffs. "There are many ways for you to do your part," Trudeau said on Jan. 22. "It might mean checking the labels and picking Canadian-made products." With U.S. tariffs now in place and counter-tariffs in effect, shoppers who took that message to heart are scrutinizing labels — and, at the same time, many are asking the question: Is there a premium on patriotism? Marketplace has received dozens of messages in recent weeks from consumers wondering if they're now paying more for the same products because they're, to varying degrees, Canadian. "I would like an investigation [to see] if 'Buy Canadian' is just another fancy marketing tactic," wrote one user on Reddit. Another sent us an email saying they feel like "Canadian items have gone up in price, some seem to increase weekly." So Marketplace analyzed the prices of thousands of grocery products labelled as Canadian at one downtown Toronto Loblaws store from the start of the year. While nine out of 10 products remained the same price — and about two per cent decreased in price — Marketplace found the regular price of hundreds of products have increased since governments put out the call to buy food made in Canada, including some very Canadian products, including tourtière and hot chocolate mix. Marketplace spoke with several economists who all said it's impossible to know for sure if a premium is being applied to these quintessentially Canadian products as demand soars at home for Canadian products, because many factors — like how processed an item is and whether it's affected by U.S. levies — are at play when it comes to pricing. They came to different conclusions about whether the demand for Canadian products might explain the price hike. Manufacturers say it's the grocers who decide the price tag and the grocer, Loblaw, denies raising grocery prices due to the demand to buy Canadian. Read more 'We look a little stupid,' says Quebec manufacturer stung by Canada's counter-tariffs Ask Louis Lafleur how he's feeling about American tariffs and his response comes quickly. "Ask me how I feel about Canadian tariffs!" Lafleur is the president of Les Boisés Lafleur, in Victoriaville, Que., 140 kilometres northeast of Montreal. The company makes wood veneers: thin sheets of a wide variety of species — maple, ash, eucalyptus — that are then applied to plywood used for countertops and furniture. When talk of U.S. tariffs began shortly after the presidential inauguration in January, Lafleur started losing sleep. He exports three-quarters of his finished product to the U.S. and was dreading duties. At first, his American clients, who were convinced tariffs wouldn't stay in place long, said they'd pay a little more to help absorb the hit. The U.S. tariffs on his exports haven't materialized, but in February, before he left office, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a counter-tariff on $30 billion worth of goods entering Canada from the U.S. — including the category of wood Lafleur uses for his veneers. He imports all of his wood from the U.S., and he's been paying a 25 per cent duty on those imports since March 4. "My clients are saying, 'Now you're complaining because your government [adds] a tariff?' We look a little stupid," Lafleur says. Read more Canadian travel to the U.S. has plummeted. One reason why: fear When political science professor Arash Abizadeh heard last month about foreign travellers being detained at the U.S. border, he cancelled plans to speak at an upcoming academic conference in Durham, N.C. He believes heightened scrutiny at the U.S. border makes travel to the country too uncertain. "Why would we subject ourselves to this?" asked Abizadeh, who teaches at McGill University in Montreal. "We can say to ourselves, 'Well, I haven't done anything wrong,' but then you have to ask yourself questions like … 'Have I said anything on social media that the current regime might find critical of them?'" Abizadeh joins a growing number of Canadians cancelling plans to visit the United States. The number of return trips among Canadians travelling to the U.S. in March plummeted compared to the previous year: down by 13.5 per cent for air travel, and down by a whopping 32 per cent for land travel. Read more Oeuf! U.S. egg prices hit record high despite Trump's claim they're 'much cheaper' U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly boasted that he's recently brought down the price of eggs, which have reached record highs amid an outbreak of bird flu in laying hens that led to a severe egg shortage. On Monday, Trump even turned the L.A. Dodgers' White House visit into an opportunity to praise himself and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, claiming "eggs are down 73 per cent" as the baseball team behind him clapped politely. And on so-called Liberation Day on April 2, as Trump announced sweeping global tariffs, he claimed Rollins brought down egg prices by more than half"once we got involved." "They were going through the sky, the egg prices," Trump said in his address. "Now we have lots of eggs and they're much cheaper, down about 59 per cent now. And they're going down further." But have they really? Turns out, when it comes to the price of eggs on store shelves, not so much. What else is going on? The Montreal-based clothing retailer filed for creditor protection late last year. Worldwide economic slump could set in by summer, unless Trump changes direction. Older machinery is cost effective but difficult to repair. Right-to-repair legislation would help. Marketplace needs your help! marketplace@
CBC
10-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
'We look a little stupid,' says Quebec manufacturer stung by Canada's counter-tariffs
Ask Louis Lafleur how he's feeling about American tariffs and his response comes quickly. "Ask me how I feel about Canadian tariffs!" Lafleur is the president of Les Boisés Lafleur, in Victoriaville, Que., 140 kilometres northeast of Montreal. The company makes wood veneers: thin sheets of a wide variety of species — maple, ash, eucalyptus — that are then applied to plywood products like countertops and furniture. When talk of U.S. tariffs began shortly after the presidential inauguration last January, Lafleur started losing sleep. He exports three-quarters of his finished product to the U.S. and was dreading duties. At first, his American clients, who were convinced tariffs wouldn't stay in place long, said they'd pay a little more to help absorb the hit. The U.S. tariffs on his exports haven't materialized, but in February, before he left office, Justin Trudeau announced a counter-tariff on $30 billion worth of goods entering Canada from the U.S. — including the category of wood Lafleur uses for his veneers. He imports all of his wood from the U.S., and he's been paying a 25 per cent duty on those imports since March 4. "My clients are saying, 'now you're complaining because your government [adds] a tariff?' We look a little stupid," Lafleur says. 'Band-Aid on a broken bone' Lafleur says he should be eligible for a duty drawback — a reimbursement for at least part of the money he's spending on counter-tariffs. But information isn't easy to find. He doesn't know how much he can count on or how long a request would take to process. In the meantime, he's playing it safe. Les Boisés Lafleur would normally import six and a half truckloads of wood a month. Lafleur has only bought three since February. "If I buy the wood and I don't get the money back, I'm going to lose a tremendous amount of money," he says. Fewer wood deliveries will mean reduced production for Lafleur's company. He has started reducing the workforce by a varying number of workers each week, typically between three and six. Lafleur applied for help under a federal program put in place in early March to help companies to keep their staff, by allowing employees to share work and qualify for EI. But he calls that "a Band-Aid on a broken bone." He doesn't see the logic in making Canadian companies pay a price in this trade war. "When the Trump administration said we're going to put a tariff, everyone agreed that it would be very, very bad for them. And our reaction to that? To do the same!" he hammers. Lafleur thinks the laying of counter-tariffs is more about a political show than about what's good for business. A manufacturing economy on the edge The mayor of Victoriaville, Antoine Tardif, is president of the regional economic development council, Destination Entreprise. He says the local economy has been booming since the COVID-19 pandemic. But since the beginning of the tariff war, government agencies that fund local projects, like the Development Bank of Canada and Investissement Québec, are taking a step back. "They have a lot of projects on hold because of the uncertainty this creates," Tardif says. "The investments aren't going on and for the city, the revenues won't be coming in." Tariffs have been top of mind since the beginning of the current federal election campaign, and the leaders of Canada's major political parties have maintained a common front on the necessity of counter-tariffs as a response to the American administration. But businessmen like Lafleur are not alone in questioning the government response. Speaking to CBC Quebec, Concordia economist Moshe Lander underlined how this trade war is playing out during a federal election campaign. "You need to be constantly going in front of a microphone and expressing your outrage, expressing your frustration and to be seen to be doing something," Lander says. "And this idea of 'let's retaliate back on them' is unfortunately the best political thing to do, but it's not good economics." Economic worries top of mind for voters Conversations with voters in the Richmond—Arthabaska riding, where Boisés Lafleur operates, suggest economic matters are top of mind. On a break from his job at a local grocery store, Maxime Gagnon says it's taxes and the cost of living that he's thinking about — and he's made a choice. "Pierre Poilievre seems more accurate when he talks about finances," Gagnon said of the Conservative Party leader. Jean-Yves Houle says he'll vote for the federal leader who's speaking to his concerns. "It's poverty. We need to find a way to make people's lives easier," Houle says. The riding is currently represented by Independent MP Alain Rayes, who left the Conservative Party in 2022. Lafleur, for his part, isn't willing to wait until election day to see how parties respond to his company's current situation. He's laying the responsibility at the feet of the sitting government. "We have Marc Carney, who's a non-elected prime minister and he's running to be an elected prime minister," Lafleur says. ''If by April 28 there's still a 25 per cent tariff, I know damn well who I won't vote for."
