Evan Solomon recently paid a visit to Sarnia-Lambton to meet with the Sarnia-Lambton Economic Partnership (SLEP) and representatives from Lambton College.
The Liberal MP serves as the Federal Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.
In an interview with Sarnia News Today, Solomon said U.S.-imposed tariffs continue to have a negative impact on Canadians.
He called southwestern Ontario the frontline of the trade war.
"And especially the tariffs, the Section 232 tariffs, these really tough tariffs, and unjustified tariffs that the U.S. has had under national security that have hit our auto, steel, aluminum," said Solomon. "On April 6, the United States changed how they tariff. They used to just tariff based on the amount of steel and aluminum within a good, but now it's on the total value of the good. I'll give you an example. Some company that was paying $1,500 on a good in tariffs, which was tough, is now spending $15,000. This is a massive consequence."
Solomon said many companies across Sarnia-Lambton are feeling the impacts.
"Let's say you're in the mold making business. You're making molds and you're using any steel and aluminum," he said. "If you're a tool and die maker, if you're an advanced manufacturer, many of the tier two, tier three suppliers around here, a lot of companies, amazing companies in Sarnia-Lambton, in Windsor, in London, all through southwestern Ontario, this has been a tough, tough time"
Solomon said the federal government has come forward with a new billion dollars of support, through the Business Development Bank of Canada.
"It gives loans to companies to get through this time, zero interest in the first year," said Solomon. "And then we've also got $500 million. This is new money on top of our existing programs for regional tariff relief to help companies get through. And the lion's share of that money is frankly coming here because this is the front lines of it. And, folks might say, look, we invest in these companies and we give zero interest loans. This is part of what FedDev does. They pay back over long-term and they're based on investment in program and equipment and innovation."
Solomon said Canada wants to keep trading with the United States, noting 85 per cent of our economy is still tariff-free.
"But the 15 per cent that's getting hammered, steel, aluminum, autos, that's real," he said. "A lot of those sectors are here and in southwestern Ontario. We want to keep trading with the U.S. But in the meantime, we've got to buy Canadian. We've got to create markets in Canada. We've got to invest in Canadians. We've got to build ports, bridges, pipelines. We've got to build the energy grids that we need."
Solomon said boosting Canadian skilled trades is paramount to success.
"We're investing in 100,000 young people to get their red seal. We're building nuclear facilities and we're investing in ports and we're going to need a lot of skilled trades," he said. "The second thing is defense. We're doubling our investment in defense. And so the dual use technologies that can be used to defense, that's really good for companies that are having trouble hitting the U.S. market. We actually have something called the Regional Defense Response Initiative to help companies link up with defense contracts. There's a whole bunch of ways that we're trying to get Canadian companies to stay in Canada and Sarnia, to grow here, to stay here, but they need new customers."
Solomon said Canada became the number one global destination for foreign direct investment this year.
"So that means more countries around the world found that our skilled labor, our products, our innovation, our country was the place they want to park it higher than the US, which was great," he said. "And we've got 20 new trade deals."
Solomon also spoke with Sarnia News Today about the state of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how we can use it to our advantage while creating safe guards.
He said people either love or hate AI but the government has to be open to the opportunities it presents.
"People ask me all the time, is it going to take my job? Is it going to take my privacy? How does Canada play a role?," he said. "We're going to make sure that we build Canadian sovereign AI. We build it with our values, it is pro worker, it creates jobs and it serves Canadians. Technology should serve us, we shouldn't serve it. But, people are using it and they want to know what it's going to mean. So we are at the beginning of a major shift. You'll see the AI national strategy out soon to deal with that, how we're going to build Canadian, how we're going to empower workers and have some skills training and how we're going to protect folks data and frankly, Canadian data and sovereignty here in Canada."
He admits it can be difficult to regulate, but they're looking at every option in terms of protecting people from misinformation or defaming rumours.
"I'll come forward with some legislation that will give people power to have what we call the right to deletion, I'm very interested in that," said Solomon. "A lot of people are asking how do you tell, should it be watermarked? Should there be a thing saying AI, not AI, you know, like a special effects thing as if you were watching The Matrix and said, oh, this guy really didn't fly through the air. This was a special graphic effect. It's tricky, right? To watermark everything because then do you have to watermark when you edit a video? But we will be putting forward legislation to make sure that AI deep fakes, for example, around election time, that parties can't use that without, you know, telling people these are AI generated imagery."
Solomon also visited Windsor-Essex last Thursday.
You can listen to the full interview with Evan Solomon on the Beyond the Headlines with Josh Boyce.
