At a midnight deadline in Washington, Canadian and American trade negotiators are bargaining over a number — 15 per cent — that carries the weight of an entire industrial civilization. Because automakers operate on margins of precisely that magnitude, a tariff set at that level does not merely wound Canadian manufacturing; it mathematically erases the reason to manufacture there at all. With 105,000 workers watching and assembly plants already contracting, this is the oldest of economic stories: when the numbers stop working, people move, and the communities they leave behind must reckon with
15% auto tariffs would erase profitability, spur industry decline
The auto industry employs approximately 105,000 people in Canada, with significant job losses already occurring at Ontario plants due to tariff pressures.