OttawaAfter facing a 25-per-cent U.S. tariff on steel, the eastern Ontario village of L’Orignal is watching to see what will happen to major employer Ivaco as the import tax doubles.Ivaco Rolling Mills employs hundreds in community and surrounding areaNkele Martin · CBC News · Posted: Jun 06, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: June 6Trump’s new steel tariffs causing more economic uncertainty in eastern Ontario U.S. steel tariffs already caused layoffs at the Ivaco plant in l’Orignal, Ont. Now, workers are worried there will be more. Workers and the community around a major eastern Ontario steel plant are nervously watching what the doubling of U.S. tariffs will mean for the area’s economy. Ivaco Rolling Mills is a major employer in L’Orignal, Ont., a village about 90 kilometres northeast of Ottawa, that draws workers and creates spinoff business for the surrounding region. Ivaco’s parent company, Heico, announced the layoffs of 140 workers in March, with about one-third of those cuts affecting the L’Orignal plant. A combination of reduced hours, furloughs, and permanent layoffs to absorb the blow of tariffs has followed, according to the union local.Eric Fournier, president of the plant’s United Steelworkers union local, told CBC News on Wednesday when the tariffs were announced that there hadn’t been word of any cancelled orders related to the tariff, but people are feeling the uncertainty.”We have daily phone calls or people that show up to my office asking questions [like], ‘What’s next? What’s happening?'” he said.Workers from both sides of riverFournier estimates about 60 per cent of the plant’s output goes to the U.S. with the rest sold domestically. He said the company’s sales teams have been working to find other buyers.”Hopefully we stay afloat for that time and the next administration will just open the gates,” he said. “Mexico [and] Canada, we’re not the enemy; we’re the allies.”If tariffs put more people out of work, the “next big job” would be around an hour’s commute away, Fournier added. Christina Famili recently moved to L’Orginal with her husband and called the spike in tariffs “frightening.””If it was me, I would be very, very nervous, very upset. I don’t know what they’re going to do,” Famili said outside the pharmacy next to the town’s welcoming moose statue. Famili said the plant employs residents of the town plus people living in neighbouring communities such as Hawkesbury and Quebecers who come across the Ottawa River.
L’Orignal braces for impact of hike to U.S. steel tariff
