Trump's tariffs could shutter this Canadian town – its residents are fighting to save it

ByJessica Murphy, Canada digital editor and Nadine Yousif, Senior Canada reporter.

Key points

• Last week, Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford confirmed almost C$9bn ($6.4bn; £4.8bn) to support Ontario's steel and auto sector.
• They turned it into Tembec, a Quebec-owned, international firm with branches throughout North America and France.
• Most of the mill's 360 employees are out of work, kept afloat for the moment with partial pay from administration tariff-relief.
• Property values in Témiscaming fell almost overnight, and "For Sale" signs dot the yards of modest middle-class homes that create up most of the town.
• As you cross the Ottawa river into Témiscaming, Quebec, the paper mill takes up much of the horizon.

Meanwhile, the town itself was built over a century ago, around the mill and the region's forests filled with pine, birch, spruce and fir. Now, the main employer and economic anchor sits idle after trade discussions broke down between Canada and the US and President Donald Trump imposed more tariffs on the country.

For some, like Nadine Suley, the shuttering of the mill could mark not just a lost livelihood, but a lost way of life.

She is not "a city girl", and is heading out moose hunting afterwards to take advantage of the short season, like much of the town. She quips they'll all need the free meat provided by the animals this year.

"It's not just a job. It's our home, " Suley says, adding that the US tariffs on her town feel like "a personal attack".

In early October, American owner RYAM went ahead with an "economic shutdown" of the mill for "an indefinite period".

There are fears that essential service individuals – from grocery store clerks to the doctors at the small local hospital – could additionally be on their way out.

"If the mill goes down, it'll turn into a ghost town, " notes Ronnie Raymond. This person like numerous in the town comes from a family of mill workers.

"There'll be nothing, nothing left. There's no work for anybody, really. It's scary."

At a high level, Canada's economy has weathered the ongoing trade war with the US, its largest customer. The national unemployment rate has remained largely steady at around 6.5% since Trump's tariffs were first implemented. It's been coupled with tepid but consistent economic expansion.

But a closer look at the numbers demonstrates pockets of deep pain in industries directly hit by US tariffs of up to 50%, like steel, aluminium, automobiles and – in the case of Témiscaming – lumber, pulp and paper. It raises questions regarding whether the Carney administration is doing enough to support those struggling while a trade agreement remains elusive.

"If there was 10% of job loss in Toronto or Montreal or Quebec City or Vancouver, it'd be all over the news, and it'd be a lot of pressure on the governments to do something, " notes Stéphane Lefebvre, an employee and union leader, whose father and grandfather additionally worked at the mill. What tariffs has Trump introduced and why?

White House lifts tariffs on some Canadian goods as midterm elections loom.

That economic pain could have ripple effects on the entire forestry industry in the region, including saw mills and trucking. One local contractor informed the BBC he has already had to lay off 13 residents.

When the mill's then-American owner threatened to shut it down, prompting the local workers and managers to come together and purchase it, the last time the town faced a threat this existential was in 1973.

In practice, the workers now hope to do it again, mobilising a coalition of locals who want to purchase the plant back from RYAM. It purchased it in 2017.

"We're hoping that lightning will hit twice, " Lefebvre notes, speaking inside the town's union hall.

But he contends that they cannot do so without significant support from Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Quebec administration, either in the form of tariff relief or financial backing.

Suley notes that the prime minister has placed emphasis on "buy local" and supporting Canadian workers since he was elected. Backing the town's bid to purchase back the mill, she states, would be a way for Carney to fulfil that pledge.

In an email to the BBC, RYAM remarked it would not comment on a potential sale of the plant or any prospective buyers.

Mayor Alain Gauthier doesn't blame RYAM for its decision. He calls US tariffs "a bomb to shut down our manufacturing in Canada".

He wants Ottawa to retaliate with its own duties on the board products coming into Canada from the US, at present tariff-free.

And he notes that while politicians have stated Canada is in an economic war with the US, "in reality we see absolutely no evidence of war measures being taken".

"We feel we got into a war with kid's water guns to fight back."

Some, like Lefebvre, feel that forestry has taken a back seat in the fight to save other tariffed industries like steel and autos.

This month, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly threatened Stelco – one of Canada's largest steelmakers – with financial penalties or a forced asset sale should they go ahead with the planned layoffs of some 500 workers due to steel tariffs pressure.

Stelco in Hamilton, near Toronto, is owned by US-based Cleveland-Cliffs. It committed to keeping jobs in Canada when it purchased the firm in 2024.

Last week, Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford confirmed almost C$9bn ($6.4bn; £4.8bn) to support Ontario's steel and auto sector. The funds will be applied to assist the industries modernise, strengthen domestic demand and open new markets overseas, they noted.

Sébastien Lemire, the elected MP for Témiscaming from the Bloc Québécois party, informed the BBC that he is "very concerned and worried" concerning what he calls inaction from the Carney administration to backing the town and Quebec's forestry industry more broadly.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Minister Joly informed the BBC in an official note that the administration has created available $400m to backing the forestry sector in rural and remote areas.

It has additionally rolled out a programme to support businesses impacted by tariffs to access cash-flow while they work to pivot away from US markets.

On the Témiscaming mill, the spokesperson remarked that the administration "is actively working with all parties involved to find a viable solution to the issues facing the company, while responsibly managing Canadians' dollars."

After the breakdown in trade discussions, the US imposed 50% duties on a some C$28bn of Canadian goods, including wood and paper products like pulp, stationery and boxes, in August. Canada in response imposed its own "dollar-for-dollar" counter-tariffs.

For context, the Témiscaming mill, which produces paperboard applied in frozen-food packaging throughout North America and in the scratch-off lottery tickets commonly discovered at convenience stores, sends roughly 75% of its production to the US.

Trump argues these import taxes boost US manufacturing and create jobs – essentially seeking to protect US workers who could face similar fates to those in Témiscaming. Frank Dottori has been through all of this before.

Now in his 80s and retired in Témiscaming, he was an engineer at the mill that was instrumental in organising its employees in the 1970s to take a 10% cut so as to collectively purchase it. He went on to become CEO.

Taken together, the developments around trump' s tariffs could shutter this Canadian town – its residents are fighting point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.