As you cross the Ottawa river into Témiscaming, Quebec, the paper mill takes up much of the horizon. 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 talks broke down between Canada and the US and President Donald Trump imposed more tariffs on the country.
Most of the mill‘s 360 employees are out of work, kept afloat for the moment with partial pay from government tariff-relief. 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 later 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 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".
Property values in Témiscaming fell almost overnight, and "For Sale" signs dot the yards of modest middle-class homes that make up most of the town. There are fears that essential service people - from grocery store clerks to the doctors at the small local hospital - could also be on their way out. "If the mill goes down, it'll turn into a ghost town," says Ronnie Raymond, who like many 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 growth. But a closer look at the numbers shows 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.
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