OTTAWA - Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford have announced $8.7 billion in joint investments to protect Ontario’s steel, auto and critical minerals industries from U.S. tariffs, in a federal-provincial action plan built around funds for steelmakers, car plants and Ring of Fire roads.
The plan, announced in Ottawa on October 21, 2026, sets out three main moves: a Joint Steel Action Fund, an additional $2.5 billion for automotive capital projects, and up to $1 billion in federal road funding for the Ring of Fire. “In the face of U.S. tariffs and growing global uncertainty, Canada is focused on what we can control,” the release says.
Steel gets the largest share
The largest piece of the package is steel. The Joint Steel Action Fund carries five-year funding commitments of $3.55 billion from the federal government and $1.67 billion from Ontario, and it will build on existing federal tools such as the Strategic Response Fund. The money is meant to help the Canadian industry diversify production, prepare steel firms to supply growing domestic industries such as defence, advanced manufacturing and energy, and open new overseas markets.
Ottawa and Ontario will also use the Buy Canadian Policy and the Buy Ontario Policy to prioritize Canadian steel in public procurement, including steel for new federal infrastructure and defence projects. On the trade side, the federal government says the Canada Border Services Agency will step up monitoring and enforcement against unfair trade practices, backed by a trade remedy system for Canadian producers facing unfairly traded imports.
A new Canada-Ontario Steel Task Force will advise both governments on implementing the steel measures, starting with ways to reduce transportation costs. The release says Canada’s steel industry supports more than 23,000 direct jobs and is integral to 172,000 jobs in fabricated metals.
Auto plants get $2.5 billion, and emissions rules pause
For automakers, the two governments are investing an additional $2.5 billion over two years in large-scale capital projects, up to $1.5 billion from Ottawa and up to $1 billion from Ontario. The funding is intended to help companies adapt to changing conditions, maintain jobs across the supply chain, and build the connected and electric vehicles of the future.
The plan also holds a line on emissions rules. The fleet average performance standard in Canada’s light-duty vehicle greenhouse gas regulations will stay at the 2026 level, 172 grams per mile, through 2029. Annual increases resume in the 2030 model year, in line with the target of 75 per cent electric vehicle sales by 2035 announced in the federal auto strategy. The backgrounder says the pause gives manufacturers near-term flexibility during trade pressures, while still letting them generate emissions credits for later years.
The capital money builds on the February 2026 auto strategy, which included $3 billion through the Strategic Response Fund and $100 million through the Regional Tariff Response Initiative for assembly and parts production. A Canada-Ontario Automotive Task Force will oversee implementation of the auto measures. The release says the auto sector supports more than 120,000 direct jobs and contributes more than $16 billion a year to Canada’s GDP.
Roads into the Ring of Fire
The third pillar is the critical minerals supply chain in Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire region. The federal government will advance essential road infrastructure for the region with a commitment of up to $1 billion over three years, matching the province’s initial investment.
Alongside the roads, Canada and Ontario will run a coordinated federal and provincial permitting process to cut duplication, identify priority projects that could draw on federal initiatives such as the Canada Critical Minerals Accelerator, the First and Last Mile Fund and investment tax credits, and create a federal-provincial working group on consultation and engagement with First Nations. That group will also study options for conservation and Indigenous protected areas as development moves forward.
What the two leaders said
“From mine to mill to assembly line, Canada and Ontario are protecting jobs today and making bold investments that will build a stronger, more resilient, more independent Canadian economy for tomorrow,” Carney said. “Today’s action plan is cooperative federalism in action. Canada is strong. Canada is united. Canada is working.”
“Working in partnership to protect Canadian workers, Ontario and Canada are fortifying our industrial base and securing the good-paying jobs of the future,” Ford said. “The agreement we are announcing today is the next step in our ongoing partnership to provide tariff-impacted workers the certainty and stability they deserve while unlocking Ontario’s vast supply of critical minerals and building a more competitive and resilient economy that can stand up to anything that comes our way.”
Why an Ontario plan matters to readers in Surrey
Nothing in this announcement names a B.C. project, company or facility. The three funding envelopes are Ontario programs, and the release does not state that any of the $8.7 billion is allocated to British Columbia.
What reaches readers in Surrey is the tariff fight itself, and the national measures the release lists beside the Ontario plan. Its quick facts say Ottawa has already provided more than $25 billion to workers and businesses affected by U.S. tariffs, plus a further $7.5 billion announced in August 2026, including $1.5 billion through the Regional Tariff Response Initiative for small and medium-sized businesses, a $500 million Business Development Bank of Canada liquidity stream, and $3.5 billion in Rapid Response Supports for workers, including extended employment insurance flexibilities.
Surrey’s South Asian business community is heavily represented in trucking, logistics, warehousing, fabrication and import and export trades, businesses that feel tariff costs through steel prices, vehicle prices and cross-border demand. Steel is a basic input for construction and manufacturing across the country, and the vehicles sold in B.C. come out of a national market shaped by Ontario assembly plants.
The release does not say when applications open for the new funds, and gives no construction timeline for the Ring of Fire roads beyond the three-year funding commitment.
Sources: Government of Canada (Prime Minister’s Office) news release, “Prime Minister Carney and Premier Ford launch new action plan to protect workers from tariffs and strengthen Ontario industries,” October 21, 2026, and the accompanying backgrounder, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, canada.ca, October 21, 2026.
