Help available for Sault and area businesses affected by U.S. tariffs, says visiting banker

The Trump administration’s tariffs on Canadian industries will no doubt continue to affect many businesses in Sault Ste. Marie which deal in steel.

With that, Michael Denham, Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) president and CEO, visited the Sault Tuesday to meet with and assure owners of local small and medium-sized steel and/or aluminum businesses help is available as they face the challenges the tariffs pose to them.

“Entrepreneurs are top of the line for us and we have 56,000 clients across the country and more than 100 in and around the Sault,” said Denham, speaking with SooToday Tuesday while on a one-day visit to the Sault.

BDC announced June 29 it is making available a commercial financing envelope of up to $800 million available over two years for eligible steel and aluminum small and medium enterprises (SMEs), designed to help those businesses navigate through choppy tariff waters.

“Our role is to position ourselves to be there for entrepreneurs. What I’m trying to do is put my finger on the pulse of the local economy as it is very driven by and very linked to steel, so that if there are client situations where companies are feeling the challenge from the tariffs, we’re organized to be supportive,” Denham said.

“It’s early days with respect to the tariffs and the dust hasn’t quite settled and it’s not quite clear what the impact is going to be on the companies in the area, but what I do know from our team here in the Sault is that entrepreneurs in this area are incredibly resilient, whether it’s the exchange rate, or the ups and downs and cycles in the steel industry, so I’m not getting any sense of pessimism or panic from any of the folks I’m meeting here.”

However, if that resilience begins to wane, Denham said BDC is there to lend struggling steel businesses money.

“In this situation, we would sit down with the entrepreneur who has been affected by the tariffs, we’d understand their game plan, their strategy, their business plan, we would work with them to see what they need to adapt or change in their business to remain sustainable and viable, and we would provide the financing on commercial terms to those entrepreneurs to make those changes.”

But Denham wants to make it clear BDC is a bank, not interested in bailouts.

“We’re not providing a kind of subsidy for tariff relief. We’re not trying to plug a hole. We’re trying to get entrepreneurs to take advantage of this financing to make the investments they need to make to adapt their businesses and position them to be sustainable.”

Methods businesses could use to adapt, Denham said, could include what he called “client diversification” and exporting to other markets apart from the U.S., including South America, Europe and Asia.

“We have a strong team here in Sault Ste. Marie (the local BDC branch located at 153 Great Northern Rd.) and they’re in constant touch with their clients and they’re well aware of the ones who might be facing more risk than others.”

“We’re going to be in constant dialogue with those clients to make sure if the need presents itself, we’re ready to kick into gear as quickly as they want us to.”

Clients in need of help may contact the local BDC office or through the BDC website

Denham said he was also in the process of visiting Hamilton, also heavily reliant on the steel industry, and the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec region, a big player in the aluminum industry.

BDC is a Montreal-based crown corporation, the only Canadian bank devoted exclusively to assisting entrepreneurs in small and medium-sized businesses.

With more than 100 offices nationwide, BDC provides businesses in all industries with financing and financial advice.

Its investment arm, BDC Capital, offers equity, venture capital, and flexible growth and transition capital solutions.