Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening.
You know, last summer I sat down for a cup of coffee at Tim Hortons in Caribou with Ron Turcotte, the legendary jockey who rode Secretariat to the Triple Crown in 1973. Ron Turcotte lived across the border in New Brunswick, Canada, but he picked up his mail at the U.S. Post Office in Van Buren, Maine, and did errands there.
His life showcased the reality of so many people living along the Maine-Canadian border. Yeah, there may be an international border there, but our communities, families, and economies are deeply entwined. And in places like the Saint John Valley, these connections existed long before the border ever did.
Throughout Maine, the President's trade war has driven up the cost of everything from groceries to cars and trucks and construction materials we need to build more homes. Because these tariffs are nothing more than taxes on American families and businesses.
Now the President has escalated his trade war, imposing 50 percent tariffs on many Canadian goods. And life is about to get more expensive and more complicated for Maine people, as well as Canadians.
In the Saint John Valley, about 90 percent of municipal road salt comes from Canada. And now, because of the President's new taxes, a major Canadian distributor has announced that it will halt deliveries of salt for the foreseeable future. It's not unheard of for The County to see snow in late September or early October, so this isn't some abstract trade war—the President's reckless behavior may soon threaten public safety.
And the damage to our state from the President's arbitrary and whiplash tariffs is not limited to business with Canada. In 2024, a developer wanted to create 125 new jobs in Jay, Maine, by turning that shuttered paper mill into an oriented strand board manufacturing facility. But the President's tariffs then increased the cost of importing specialized equipment from Europe so that developer was forced to scrap his plans.
President Trump claims his tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back to America, but hey in Jay, his tariffs killed 125 of those jobs before they could even be created.
Now Canada is responding to the recent tariffs with tariffs of their own. Soon they'll add taxes to goods that last year made up $170 million of Maine's exports. These tariffs will make exporting these goods more expensive—hurting industries and communities that never asked to be caught in this fight. Industries and communities that, like Ron Turcotte's life, just do not fit neatly on one side of the border or the other.
As I record this, negotiators have not reached an agreement to avoid Canada's retaliatory tariffs from taking effect on September 8th. President Trump must de-escalate this ridiculous trade war before his recklessness does any more damage to the world economy and to Maine's economy.
We in Maine know that we share more than a border with Canada. We share an economy, a history. We share friendships and families and a way of life. Our relationship does not belong to any one president or one prime minister. It belongs to the everyday Mainers and Canadians who can pull up a chair at Tim Hortons, do business together, be friends, and lend a hand when a neighbor needs one.
This is Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening.