Essex County applies for provincial funding due to impacts by U.S. trade disruptions

Canadian and American flags fly near the Ambassador Bridge at the Canada-USA border crossing in Windsor, Ont. on Saturday, March 21, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rob Gurdebeke

The County of Essex is working to protect local jobs and industries affected by trade disruptions with the U.S.

On Wednesday, county council was faced with a report looking for approval to submit an application under the Trade Impacted Communities Program (TICP).

This program, which was announced by the Ontario government in mid-May, aims to help communities and local industries navigate through significant economic challenges caused by U.S. tariffs and trade uncertainty.

The $40 million grant program assists communities like Windsor-Essex. Invest WindsorEssex is coordinating the application on behalf of the region and will be applying to fund a number of key initiatives to support local manufacturing, automotive, and agri-food businesses.

The local region has been impacted by trade disruptions due to its dependence on cross-border trade, especially in the automotive and agrifood sectors. This program will look to transform the region into a diverse manufacturing hub by expanding into sectors such as defense, aerospace, and clean technologies.

Essex County CAO, Sandra Zwiers, said this would diversify the region’s manufacturing and automotive hub.

“As we’ve seen with the evolution of tariff tensions there is a desperate need for our region to think outside the box, look at different avenues for the economy in order to ride out this economic storm,” she said.

Amherstburg mayor, Michael Prue, said he’s fully in support of this program following the difficult news of the closure of the Diageo plant in February 2026.

“Having this in place from the province may afford some opportunity for companies like that,” said Prue.

“And we won’t be the only one, but we are this week’s flavour of the week I guess, but there are other companies in the region which may end up with the same fate, closing it down, moving it to the U.S.”

Tecumseh mayor, Gary McNamara, said this is needed to protect local jobs.

“The Town of Tecumseh has over 300 tool and mold shops, 80 per cent of them are dealing with the U.S. automotive, and aerospace, and biomedical, and so this is very timely. And as we all know, if we are not the hardest hit, we’re probably right up there at the top in terms of unemployment, certainly in our region.”

The initiative seeks to diversify local companies, address vulnerabilities from trade disruptions, and promote sustainable economic growth.

The report was unanimously supported by council, which will see the application sent with a letter of support from County Council, as well as a Memorandum of Understanding with Invest WindsorEssex.

Other regional partners have confirmed their support as well including the City of Windsor, the University of Windsor, St. Clair College, the Windsor Essex Chamber of Commerce, and others.

- Written by Meagan Delaurier/AM800 News.