The Canadian hardwood flooring industry is at risk of losing thousands of jobs due to U.S. tariffs announced Friday by the Trump administration, Preverco CEO Jean-François Dufresne told CTV News. The new tariff adjustments are set to go into effect on Oct. 30 and will affect Canadian goods including soaps, certain paints, carpets and hardwood flooring.
“Overnight, we’re losing 25% of our business,” Dufresne said. “There is no way that we can pass those tariffs, and there is no way we can absorb them. So essentially, that business is gone overnight.” With the loss of the U.S. business, Dufresne said, producers like him have limited markets for their products, and he believes jobs could be lost in a matter of weeks.
“The flooring industry represents many thousands of jobs. And then, when that goes down, it’s going to affect the sawmills, and that’s another bunch of thousands of jobs. And when that goes down, it’s going to affect the lumber guys, the ones who are, you know, harvesting the lumber,” Dufresne said, adding that the small businesses in the villages that support the lumber industry will suffer.
To find out what Ottawa plans to do to help Canadian flooring producers, Dufresne wrote to federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne requesting a meeting. He also urged the federal government to impose a 100% surcharge on hardwood flooring imported into Canada from countries such as China no later than Oct. 30, the day the tariffs are set to kick in.
“Unless there is something, a hope that the government is going to change the Canadian landscape, it doesn’t make sense to keep throwing money at this if it’s not going to go anywhere,” he said. “And once it’s gone, it’s not going to come back.”
Read the full article from CTV NewsA here.
