![\"Minister](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/cbc.ca\/ef8d05b5486bfd250a932057710578c5.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nAs the federal government announces dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs against the United States, the mayors of Ottawa and Gatineau, Que., reaffirmed their commitment Tuesday to strengthen economic ties between the two cities.<\/p>\n
At a media event Tuesday morning, Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and Gatineau Mayor\u00a0Maude Marquis-Bissonnette signed a new economic co-operation pact between the two municipalities, including the creation of a distinct economic zone encompassing the National Capital Region.<\/p>\n
“We already have a strong foundation, but this will bring the level of collaboration between our two cities to the next level,” Sutcliffe said.<\/p>\n
The announcement comes after the collapse of the Canada-U.S. trade deal Friday evening, resulting in 50 per cent tariffs on $28 billion worth of Canadian goods including electronics, plastics, wood, paper and dairy.<\/p>\n
Sutcliffe said it’s time to remove barriers to interprovincial trade, noting companies on both sides of the Ottawa River still face hurdles.<\/p>\n
“These bureaucratic barriers have existed for far too long,” he said. “If there was ever a time to remove them, it is now.”<\/p>\n
Under the new agreement, the two cities are also pledging to strengthen transportation links, promote tourism, build on the defence and cybersecurity sector, and create other opportunities for collaboration.<\/p>\n
The two mayors previously met last year to discuss eliminating barriers to interprovincial trade.<\/p>\n
Marquis-Bissonnette said the agreement signals a will to “consolidate our economy” and “create opportunities to downsize the quantity of barriers that we have between the two provinces.”<\/p>\n
The announcement came the same day Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government announced details of its dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs on $27.6 billion of comparable U.S. goods.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n
Canada also announced $7.5 billion in support for workers and businesses affected by the U.S. tariffs, including expanding employment insurance and employee support programs, and increasing non-repayable federal loans.<\/p>\n
“Building at home is not a Plan B. It is a Plan A,” said Industry Minister M\u00e9lanie Joly on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the province’s plans to support local businesses and workers by expanding the Protect Ontario Financing Program.<\/p>\n
Sutcliffe said Tuesday he had yet to speak directly with the premier about the joint agreement with Gatineau, but said Ford wants to see “a strong economy in Ottawa.”<\/p>\n
“I believe he will understand the benefits of creating a strong economic region here,” Sutcliffe said.<\/p>\n
Sutcliffe previously announced on X his plan to bring forward a motion to city council Wednesday to discuss other ways to protect the local economy.<\/p>\n
Under the agreement signed Tuesday, a joint Ottawa-Gatineau committee will be established to oversee the implementations of the new pact. Sutcliffe did not give a timeline for when the agreement will come into effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the federal government announces dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs against the United States, the mayors of Ottawa and Gatineau, Que.,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[57736,3456,8782,664,57735,5098,61,5096],"class_list":["post-183201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-bureaucratic-barriers","tag-gatineau","tag-interprovincial-trade","tag-mark-sutcliffe","tag-marquis-bissonnette","tag-national-capital-region","tag-ottawa","tag-ottawa-river"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}