MADAWASKA (WGME) — Maine’s economy is deeply connected to Canada, especially in border communities where businesses are already experiencing the effects of tariff tensions.

On the Senate floor, Collins spoke in support of a resolution introduced by Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) that would end the emergency declaration President Trump signed in February to justify the tariffs. The administration claims Canada is not doing enough to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S., but Collins argues the policy is misguided and harmful to Maine’s economy.

When the CBS13 I-Team visited Madawaska last month, the economic link between Maine and Canada was clear—especially at Twin Rivers Paper Mill, the area’s largest employer. The mill relies on wood pulp from a sister plant in Edmundston, New Brunswick, which is transported across the border through a pipeline into the Maine manufacturing facility.

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“A tariff placed on this pulp would jeopardize the financial well-being of this vital paper mill,” Sen. Collins said during a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday. “There is not another big employer in that area that could possibly compensate for the loss of those 510 direct jobs.”

Madawaska Town Manager Dave Daigle echoed those concerns. “Twin Rivers is a big partner of ours, and we’re all waiting with bated breath to see how this all plays out.”

Broader Economic UncertaintyIt’s not just the paper and agricultural industries feeling the strain.

Autotronics, a company based in Frenchville that builds and retrofits emergency vehicles, tells the I-Team it’s already lost millions of dollars in contracts due to Canadian retaliation against U.S. tariffs.

“Probably half a dozen large contracts,” Daigle said. “One of them, they stopped us from working on the truck and had us take it over as is.”

New Brunswick officials warn that Canada may continue to retaliate if additional trade restrictions are imposed.

“We are keeping in our back pocket any option,” said Jean-Claude D’Amours, New Brunswick’s Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs told CBS13 last month. “Right now, we feel that we are being attacked.”

Political Divide Over Tariffs

President Trump argues that the tariffs are necessary to curb fentanyl trafficking across the northern border and criticized Sen. Collins and other Republicans for opposing his trade policies.

“Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul, also of Kentucky, will hopefully get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change, and fight the Democrats wild and flagrant push to not penalize Canada for the sale, into our Country, of large amounts of Fentanyl, by Tariffing the value of this horrible and deadly drug in order to make it more costly to distribute and buy,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

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However, Collins refutes that claim, citing federal data showing that less than 1% of fentanyl seizures last year occurred along the Canadian border.

“Unlike Mexico and China, Canada is not complicit in this crisis,” Collins said. “We should be working with our Canadian allies, not penalizing them.”