An Opinion Piece by Daryl Ching
When Ottawa rolled out the Regional Tariff Response Initiative (RTRI), the idea sounded right: help businesses adapt to a messy trade landscape by funding projects that boost productivity and strengthen supply chains. But good intentions don’t mean much if the program is built for the wrong people.
It’s telling that RTRI’s priority sectors read like a heavy-industry wish list: steel, automotive, critical minerals, mining, forestry, clean tech, bioeconomy and agriculture. Those are capital-intensive sectors dominated by larger firms, exactly the kinds of companies that can take advantage of long, project-based funding. That sectoral emphasis helps explain why Main Street was effectively left out in the cold. It’s not designed for the people who actually make our towns interesting: the micro-business owners, indie sellers, craftmakers who ship a handful of parcels a week, and the small innkeepers and tour operators whose entire year depends on steady customers. Those businesses don’t need capital projects. They need help right now.
The immediate crisis came on Aug. 29, 2025, when the U.S. ended its long-standing de-minimis exemption. Parcels that used to cross the border duty-free now require full customs clearance, duties and brokerage. The fallout was brutal and fast: international postal traffic to the U.S. plunged; carriers paused lanes and scrambled to reconfigure systems. For many small sellers, the math flipped overnight.
The data we’re seeing is worrying and consistent: an 80% collapse in low-value postal lanes right after the rule change, and survey results showing nearly one-third of SMEs expect to be hit by the loss of the $800 threshold, with almost one in five saying they won’t survive six months under current tariff pressures. Those aren’t abstract numbers. They’re cancelled orders, empty rooms, and side businesses that never scale because they never survive the first shock.
RTRI could help. But not in its current form. Its application process, reporting requirements and co-funding expectations favor businesses that already have capacity. That means policy dollars will flow to firms that can plan long projects, while the people losing customers this week get left behind.
Fixing this doesn’t require scrapping RTRI. It requires adding tools that actually match the needs of small businesses. I highly advise our government to consult industry experts in tune with the needs of small businesses. If policymakers want to protect the entrepreneurs that make our communities vibrant, they need to widen RTRI’s toolbox, and they need to do it quickly. Otherwise, let’s just be honest about it and call it what it is – a rescue package for medium to large size businesses.
