REGINA — Funding is coming from the federal government to Saskatchewan businesses most impacted by pressures from the ongoing tariffs situation.
At an announcement just north of Regina, Minister for Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) Eleanor Olszewski confirmed $8.1 million is going to support four Saskatchewan projects through the Regional Tariff Response Initiative.
One is a $5.1 million investment in the Saskatchewan Trade & Export Partnership to help Saskatchewan businesses with trade and export opportunities.
As well, $1 million each is going to support three steel manufacturing companies located in and around Regina. Those are DynaIndustrial GP Inc., Dutch Industries Ltd. and Hi-Tec Profiles Inc.
“So this funding is going to help Saskatchewan companies stay competitive, increase their productivity, reach new markets, and strengthen supply chains that people in Saskatchewan and the rest of the country really depend on,” Olszewski said.
She said funding for DynaIndustrial will help them “strengthen its competitiveness and reach new customers and really contribute to strengthening supply chains.”
The funds for Pilot Butte-based Dutch Industries will go to “diversify its steel manufacturing equipment and create new products for the agricultural sector. That means supporting a Saskatchewan company as it adapts to market conditions and expands its product offerings and continues to serve one of the sectors that's always been central to this province's economy.”
The funds for Hi-Tec, Olszewski said, will help them “grow its manufacturing capacity and strengthen Canada's steel parts supply chain. That really matters because in a world of trade disruption and supply chain uncertainty, Canada needs more domestic capacity. We need to be able to make more of what we do at home, and Saskatchewan businesses have a vital role to play in that mission, and these are four companies that are already doing that work. They're building and exporting, hiring and innovating and competing.”
In speaking to reporters, Olszewski acknowledged steel is “one of the most heavily impacted by tariff sectors, and so that's why it was important to support those in the steel industry and provide tariff relief.”
But she emphasized the funding available through PrairiesCan for tariff relief is “agnostic. And so what I mean by that is it's not that only a specific industry can apply, there are many kinds of industries. As long as they're impacted by tariffs, they're able to apply to PrairiesCan for tariff relief.”
As for how businesses are selected, Olszewski said they can apply for either tariff relief or other PrairiesCan funding, through a simple process on the PrairiesCan website which will explain the different funding streams available.
PrairiesCan officials are “local. They know local industry well,” said Olszewski. “And in addition to supporting people through the application process, they often do outreach. That is, PrairiesCan does outreach in the business community to speak to businesses and make sure that they're aware of the various funding streams that are available.”
The announcement was hosted at the DynaIndustrial plant north of Regina. Marland Ottenbreit, general manager of the Regina brandh of DynaIndustrial, welcomed the funding.
“It creates a lot less risk for when you're investing millions of dollars and you walk around the shop here and you see a lot of the equipment,” Ottenbreit said.
“It's not small pieces of equipment. It's multi-million dollar pieces that it takes years and years to pay off. So it's very important.”
As for how this announcement will impact their employees who come to work day in and day out, Ottenbreit said it “not only helps them, it motivates them.
It gets them excited to see that we are investing and when they see the Canadian government investing, it shows them confidence and makes them excited and want to come to work every day.”
DynaIndustrial has a lot of steel customers in the USA with Ottenbreit saying they export “2+;$ probably 50 per cent to 60 per cent of our products.”
He said 2024 had been “kind of a banner year for us, but it was kind of tied to one of the bigger projects in the province here.” But he acknowledged things slowed down in 2025 with the new administration in the U.S. and the tariffs.
“But we're hopeful. Things are turning around here and hopefully we'll get CUSMA signed and it'll be some benefit for the Canadians and be back to business as normal.”
Greg Cruson, President of Dutch Industries, was asked by reporters about the impact of tariffs and responded that it was a really complicated question, “partly because it's so interrelated.”
Cruson said a big part of the tariff question is “what's going to happen next? And we really just need to know.”
He welcomed the stability that comes from the funding announcement.
“Yeah, for us, a big part of it is it allowed us to invest in something that we were on the edge of wondering whether it was possible or not,” said Cruson. He couldn’t provide details yet, as a product announcement will come out later on this year. “But once we do, we should be able to see what the impact of that is.”
