Ontario finance minister underscores 'Team Canada' approach ahead of impending U.S. tariff threats

Amid the looming tariff threats from incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said he and his provincial counterparts are standing united at this "critical time."

"We got to work together," Bethlenfalvy told CP24 in an interview on Tuesday afternoon, following the meeting with each province's financial ministers.

"There's a lot of unity, there's a lot of discussion about 'Team Canada.' Obviously the threats from the U.S. through the tariffs are significant and we spent a lot of time talking about some of the responses, working with the federal government, working across party-lines and working with our counterparts in the U.S." 

• Download our app to get alerts on your device

President-elect Trump is threatening to impose a 25 per cent tax on Canadian imports when he takes power in January. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has already said premiers across Canada are coming together as a team amid Trump's tax threat, though he differentiated himself from some of his counterparts by threatening to cut off the electricity Ontario supplies to New York, Michigan and Minnesota, as a "last resort."

Despite this strong posture, Bethlenfalvy stressed Ontario is "very aligned" with the rest of the premiers and finance ministers on what steps to take should these tariffs be imposed, as they have navigated other challenges together before.

"We're going to continue to have the dialogue to make sure that every challenge in front of us, we will have solutions, we'll be working together, and through that, I think we'll have a Team Canada approach (and) a pretty good shot at navigating these pretty choppy waters," Bethlenfalvy said.

The meeting happened a day after Chrystia Freeland suddenly resigned as federal finance minister, plunging Parliament Hill into chaos and prompting renewed calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign. That said, officials have told CP24 Tuesday's get-together was planned in advance and not in response to Monday's developments.

The federal government, despite the sudden shuffle in its cabinet, still published the fall fiscal update, which reported a deficit of $61.9 billion for 2023-24. The fall economic statement – tabled by Government House Leader Karina Gould – was delivered later than usual and more than $20 billion over the previous forecast.

"I think it's critically important to have fiscal targets, and to stick with them," Bethlenfalvy said in response to the economic statement. "I was quite disappointed that they missed their deficit target, they're not really improving on a lot of other metrics, so, quite disappointed from a fiscal point of view."

Provincially, Bethlenfalvy flexed how Ontario's fiscal strength, pointing to its S&P credit rating upgrades and meeting its fiscal targets.

"Going into these troubled times, or challenging times, it's important to come at it from a position of fiscal strength. So, Ontario is in good shape, we need the federal government to be in stronger shape," Bethlenfalvy said.

The finance minister said another meeting with his counterparts is set to take place sometime in January. 

With files from CTV News Toronto's Phil Tsekouras and CTV News Parliamentary Bureau's Spencer Van Dyk