ICBA to Ottawa: Stop Taxing the Things We Build With

Canada's counter-tariffs took effect September 8. By our count, about 400 of the product lines on that schedule are construction inputs — roughly $22 billion in annual imports and $8.8 billion a year in gross duty.

Today ICBA President & CEO Chris Gardner wrote to federal Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne to explain what that does to the cost of building in B.C. and Alberta.

ICBA supports Canada hitting back hard. Our members are ready to pay their share of that fight. But a tariff only works when it costs an American a sale. On steel, engineered wood, cranes, excavators and HVAC units, there is no Canadian supplier to switch to. The American keeps the sale. The Canadian buyer pays 25 or 50 per cent more. Ottawa collects the difference.

That buyer is a family buying a home, a taxpayer funding a school, or an investor deciding whether a project proceeds at all. The tariff never lands on an American.

The letter sets out five asks — exempt construction inputs Canada can't source, fix the LVL classification, protect contracts signed before August 25, put a 30-day clock on remission, and aim the next round at finished goods with real substitutes.

Read the full letter here.