Canada’s federal government in Ottawa is struggling with a massive backlog of tariff relief requests.
Finance Canada has granted more than 200 requests for relief from having to pay counter-tariffs on imports from the U.S.
However, that is only a fraction of the backlog of more than 800 requests that are currently awaiting decisions from bureaucrats in the nation’s capital.
Finance Canada says it has approved tariff relief requests valued at a total of $5.6 billion, with most of that money going to help steel producers.
The relief money doled out so far is more than double the $2.2 billion that had been estimated in the government’s 2025 federal budget.
And the amount of taxpayer funds going to tariff relief for businesses could rise substantially more given the size of the backlog of requests, says Finance Canada.
However, Finance Canada does note that it has denied 150 requests for tariff relief valued at an estimated $3.9 billion.
Canada put counter-tariffs in place in March 2025 in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war.
Ottawa has since removed many counter-tariffs as it seeks to de-escalate trade tensions with the U.S. But counter-tariffs remain on steel, aluminum, and automobiles.
