Tariff tensions threaten Canada’s construction market
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In recent months, large Canadian construction companies have performed more strongly in the stock market than their American counterparts, but contractors in both countries face uncertainty and fallout from President Donald Trump’s trade policies.
Among the levies that the U.S. has imposed on Canada — and that are still in effect — are a 25% tax on steel and aluminum issued on March 12 and a 10% baseline reciprocal tariff issued on April 5, according to Supply Chain Dive. Canada, for its part, has responded with its own retaliatory tariffs, most recently on April 9 with a 25% tax on U.S.-made vehicle imports.
The trade tensions mark a turn away from the countries’ historically neighborly relationship, personified through projects such as the Gordie Howe Bridge between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit.
Since the election, the value of stocks for Canadian engineering companies WSP and Stantec “dramatically outperformed U.S. peers” like AECOM, Bowman Consulting Group, Fluor, Jacobs, KBR, NV5 Global and Parsons, which saw their stocks slump during that period, according to a March 23 analysis that Milwaukee-based financial services firm Baird shared with Construction Dive.
The reasons for that decline are complex, however, according to Baird Senior Research Analyst Andrew Wittmann. The shareholder bases on the Canadian firms are far more stable since a huge portion of them are owned by various Canadian pension plans, while U.S.-listed stocks don’t have the same benefit. Foreign exchange rates are a factor, and currency markets have also been quite volatile, he said.
“In my opinion the relative stock performance difference between the Canadian design companies and the U.S.-listed ones is more a question of the overall financial markets’ performance between the two countries rather than anything specific to the tariff policies,” Wittmann told Construction Dive in an email. “The Canadian-listed companies have plenty of exposure to [the] U.S. market.”
Construction activity in Canada has shown modest growth in recent months, according to the Canadian Construction Association’s Winter 2025 economic report. Toronto’s crane count grew by over 20% between August 2024 and February 2025, signaling a strengthening construction market, according to Rider Levett Bucknall’s most recent Crane Index , while Calgary’s crane count remained stable. The rest of the cities surveyed are in the U.S., and seven of them posted declines, with a 19% domestic downturn overall.