Metal casket maker ready for trade war to end after steel hit with 50% tariff

Sarah Leavitt · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 13, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

At precisely noon, the casket welders, sanders and overgarment sprayers are turned disconnected and a quiescent hum settles implicit the Magog Caskets mill level in southeastern Quebec.

"The caller closing time," says 1 of the workers arsenic helium removes his receptor buds.

"New" as a effect of the imposition of tariffs and counter-tariffs betwixt the United States and Canada.

"The Trump medication is charging maine a tariff. It's like, immoderate I do, [the U.S.] is trying to strangle me," said Nicolas Lacasse, the proprietor of Magog Caskets. "And erstwhile I effort to support myself, it's similar Canada is holding my hand, truthful I can't support myself."

Magog Caskets is the lone shaper of metallic caskets successful Canada, which it sells chiefly successful Quebec and the U.S. And the superior worldly utilized to marque those caskets? Steel.

Not lone has the U.S. imposed a 50 per cent tariff connected aluminum and steel, but Canada has imposed a reciprocal tariff of 25 per cent.

So Lacasse has had to trim his worker workload from 39 hours a week to lone 15 to 20 hours due to the fact that helium nary longer makes a profit.

Best effect successful satellite of atrocious options

Like thousands of businesses crossed Canada, Lacasse has had to travel up with the slightest achy enactment erstwhile faced with tariffs and counter-tariffs.

His archetypal enactment is to proceed buying Canadian alloy but look a 50 per cent tariff connected the finished caskets going into the U.S. Option 2, and the 1 helium chose: bargain American steel, devour the outgo of the speech complaint and wage the 25 per cent counter-tariff connected the earthy material.

"That was the astir cost-effective one, actually," Lacasse said. "It's inactive creating occupation here, though. I'm moving astatine a loss."

According to an investigation by Statistics Canada, 53 per cent of import-export companies successful Canada deliberation the tariffs volition person a high-to-medium interaction connected concern wrong the adjacent 3 months.

April saw Canada's largest recorded merchandise commercialized deficit, arsenic companies attempted to minimize the harm to user pocketbooks.

"We are seeing a ample fig of companies instrumentality each sorts of assertive steps to either cancel contracts, debar shipping or different renegotiate pricing, for example, with their customers oregon their suppliers," said William Pellerin, a commercialized lawyer with the steadfast McMillan LLP.

"It's precise destabilizing. There's nary question astir it."

Option to walk outgo to lawsuit impossible

Lacasse says portion immoderate businesses person the enactment to walk the accrued tariff-related costs on to customers, that's intolerable for him.

As the lone Canadian metallic casket manufacturer, the institution lone competes with those successful the United States. Those companies aren't raising prices, truthful helium can't.

As a result, helium has appealed to the Canadian authorities to springiness his niche concern an exemption.

"Right now, it's lone my currency travel that keeps maine going," helium said. "We request to get assistance from the authorities to astatine slightest debar that 25 per cent tariff, similar they did successful the automotive industry. That's the lone mode we tin marque it past astatine this point."

The Canadian authorities has been giving exemptions, but determination is simply a backlog successful demands.

In April, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said those exemptions are meant to assistance companies successful the abbreviated term.

"We're giving Canadian companies and entities much clip to set their proviso chains and go little babelike connected U.S. suppliers," Champagne said.

"There are decidedly clients that person benefitted greatly from the assorted exemptions, including a remission, which is simply a large-scale exemption that the authorities of Canada offered successful mid-April," said Pellerin, the lawyer.

"The government's looking astatine it based connected the champion interests of Canada. These exemptions are retroactive, but we're expecting that they're going to instrumentality 4 to six months earlier they're granted."

For immoderate companies, that whitethorn beryllium excessively late. Lacasse hopes Magog Caskets isn't 1 of them.