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“In the face of President Trump’s attacks on Ontario’s economy, our government will do whatever it takes to protect Ontario workers and businesses,” the premier said.

His comments came with stock markets around the world shedding trillions of dollars in value due to Trump’s turmoil and as the number of jobs at risk in the Canadian auto sector surged past 10,000, all against the backdrop of an April 28 federal election dominated by the crisis.

“We can’t control President Trump, but we’re in full control of the kind of future we build for ourselves,” Ford said, adding his measures “will help give workers and businesses the support they need in the face of growing economic uncertainty.”

The federal government has already announced tax deferrals that could give businesses about $40 billion in short-term liquidity to sustain the early blows in the trade fight.

By temporarily deferring select provincially administered taxes for six months from last Tuesday through to Oct. 1, about $9 billion in cash flow for companies would be freed up “to keep workers employed and weather the economic turmoil.”

Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said “it’s kind of like an interest-free loan for the next six months.”

“It helps with their liquidity, their payroll and so on,” said Bethlenfalvy, adding the deferral of tax remittance should help around 80,000 businesses and should not adversely the province’s bottom line in the long run because the money will eventually be paid. 

There will be no penalties or interest charged for late filing.

Queen’s Park is giving the six-month reprieve on the employer health tax, the insurance premium tax, the gasoline and fuel tax, the mining tax, the tobacco tax, the beer, wine and spirits tax, the race track sales tax, and the retail sales tax on insurance contracts and benefits plans.

“This is very fluid situation. What we’re trying to do is provide some certainty in a period of uncertainty,” said Bethlenfalvy.

The Progressive Conservative government will also give businesses an additional $2 billion in rebates through the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) “for safe employers to support businesses and help keep workers on the job.”

Ford, who is working closely with Mark Carney’s federal Liberal government and the other provincial premiers to reduce trade barriers within Canada, said the moves should blunt the pain of Trump’s 25 per cent tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum.

As evidence of the tight relationship in the fight against tariffs, Carney drew cheers at a Liberal campaign rally Sunday in British Columbia when he quipped “we’re sending Doug Ford on Fox News to show them we’re not messing around up here.”

A delighted Ford said Carney texted him about the comment.

“He’s joking around, but it’s a good thing,” said the premier, who has become a familiar face on U.S. cable news shows in recent months. 

During the Feb. 27 Ontario election campaign, Ford asked voters for a renewed mandate in order to spend “tens of billions of dollars” to protect Ontario from the impact of Trump’s protectionist measures.

Ontario does $500 billion in two-way trade with the U.S. each year, so a lengthy trade war could be devastating to the province’s economy.

Campaigning in Terrace, B.C., Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised to be a bulwark against “Donald Trump’s economic vandalism over the last several days.”

“We are all watching the stock market with interest today,” said Poilievre. “We have to acknowledge that this chaos is the direct result of wrong headed, unnecessary, chaotic policies coming from President Trump.”

Carney, a former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor, said he has been consulting with other world leaders, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, about the volatile markets.

“What you worry about in these types of situations, if you are charged with overseeing financial markets, is are there problems that are being created by the markets themselves, the banks themselves, are there weaknesses? We do not see that,” the Liberal leader said.

“We have rock solid financial institutions in this country, so they’re not making it worse.”

The head of the trade association representing the Canadian manufacturing industry said the Ontario move, as well as a similar one from Quebec last month, should help manufacturers continue operating.

“We need to make sure we keep the workers whole, and keep the companies from going insolvent,” said Dennis Darby, CEO of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.

In one high-profile example, Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Jeep and Fiat, has temporarily shut down its massive Windsor assembly plant for two weeks, idling 4,500 workers.

Flavio Volpe, president of the Auto Parts Manufacturers’ Association, said that has resulted in another 10,000 to 12,000 Canadian workers at least temporarily out of a job because of the production pause in Windsor and across the border in the Detroit suburb of Warren, Michigan.

“Anyone who supplies Windsor and Warren isn’t working right now,” said Volpe, who has been working with Carney and Ford on the tariff debacle.

At Queen’s Park, Green Leader Mike Schreiner said his party supported Ford’s tax breaks and is “fully committed to working across party lines,” but urged him to do more on housing affordability.

New Democrat MPP Lise Vaugeois (Thunder Bay—Superior North) said transferring $2 billion from the WSIB to employers is “a step in the wrong direction … while injured workers struggle to get by.”

With files from Josh Rubin