‘A solid punch in the face:’ A look at the GTA businesses that could be impacted by promised tariffs

From the auto industry, food production and manufacturing, here's how tariffs would impact three small businesses in the GTA.

From tiny parts in the auto industry to food prepared for store shelves and even the chemicals that go into everyday products.

These are just some of the items that could be impacted if U.S. president-elect Donald Trump makes good on his threat to impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods at the border upon taking office next week.

CTV News Toronto visited three businesses in the GTA to get a sense of how the proposed tariffs could impact them.

Here is what we found out:

Pain for local auto parts makers?

Ultra-Form manufacturing is a small auto parts maker in Etobiocoke that has been in business 50 years. They are just one of over 250 producers of small auto parts in Canada. The mostly aluminum parts made at Ultra Form are sold to a company in Oakville that makes cooling systems. From there, the cooling systems are sold to car manufactures – including the each of the big three in America, GM, Ford, and Stellantis.

“It will be bad for us,” owner Kacee Vasudeva said of the tariffs in an interview of CTV News Toronto this week.

Trump said at a news conference last week that the U.S. doesn’t need Canadian manufactured cars.

But Vasudeva disputes the claim. He says that while tariffs would mean pain for local part makers, the industry in Ontario is simply too large for the tariffs to last.

“We are so intertwined. Even if Mr. Trump does whatever he does, he can’t unwind it,” he said.

Of the top 10 Canadian exports to the U.S. automotive parts rank third behind crude oil and passenger cars, with just under 23 billion dollars in 2023.

Prices will rise

Not far away in Mississauga the factory of a made in Canada food provider called Healthy Crunch is a flurry of activity. Workers wearing cap and gowns are dipping fresh kale in a special batter for the purpose of making Kale chips, one of the companies signature products.

Founder and CEO of Healthy Crunch Julie Bednarski said her concern is competitiveness.

‘It’s going to make our products more expensive,” she says.

Bednarski is a registered dietitian and chef. She founded Healthy Crunch 10 years ago with the goal of improving the everyday foods people eat. Healthy Crunch has been successful in Canada, working with retailers like Loblaws and Wal-Mart and earning approximately $10 million in sales last year.

Success in Canada has put Healthy Crunch on the cusp of large-scale expansion into the U.S., Bednarski said. Healthy Crunch has deals with major retailers like Whole foods, Wal Mart and Target and sales were projected to more than double in 2025.

“If we’re going to have an extra 25 per cent or even higher extra tariff on our products when we’re shipping it to the U.S. it is dramatically going to change the price of the product and consumers might not purchase our products in in the U.S.,” Bednarski says.

Intermediate Food producers like Healthy Crunch make up the ninth most exported items to the US – at just under 12 billion dollars.

But now sales are hard to predict given the possible uneven playing field.

‘A solid punch in the face for sure’

Over in Brampton - Mohit Sharma is the President and CEO of Zochem, and he gives us a tour of their plant making Zinc Oxide - a white powder that is used in many everyday products.

“Zinc Oxide is ubiquitous in your daily life. it goes in the tires, rubber agriculture, which is animal feed and fertilizer, it’s into pharmaceutical products such as your multivitamins. Your sunscreen, your baby’s diaper rash cream,” Sharma explains.

Zochem highlights another problem for companies exporting to the U.S. They are headquartered in Tennessee, but half of their production comes from Brampton. They’re the largest producer of Zinc Oxide in North America, shipping over $100 million dollars worth to the U.S. annually and the Brampton facility has been operating for 50 years.

Sharma says that a 25 per cent tariff would be “a solid punch in the face for sure.”

“The tariff would be taken on by the customer. 80 per cent of our product goes into the United States,” he says.