A bid priced in July, signed in August, built in October carries every cent of the increase on your side of the ledger. Here is what moved, and how to stop quoting into a loss.
In force since 8 September · what hit contractors
Canada’s counter-tariffs on US goods now reach a long way into a job:
- Steel and aluminum, and their derivative products — fasteners, framing, extrusions, fixings
- Appliances and furniture — every kitchen and millwork package
- Floor coverings of plastics — at 50%
- Electronics — controls, sensors, smart systems
On the US side, the 50% Section 338 measure captures wood and paper products, machinery, chemicals, plastics and rubber — and CUSMA does not exempt them. All of this is being charged now, on material crossing today. It is not a warning about something coming.
What we do about it: we work out exactly where your material list is exposed, build you a private AI knowledge base on your own supplier and take-off data, and scope what to build next. The review also covers who else in the world would buy what you make. See what you receive →
What this actually does to a contractor
Construction runs on quotes honoured for weeks and contracts running for months. That is precisely the business model tariffs destroy. Talks between Ottawa and Washington have broken down, so plan on this lasting rather than lifting.
- Fixed-price work absorbs the whole increase. Plywood, fixtures, adhesives, sealants and appliance packages climb, and the loss only surfaces at project close.
- Rates may move again. US homebuilder lobbies are pressing hard for exemptions on Canadian wood. That rewards contractors who can requote in hours, and punishes those on thirty-day quotes.
- Schedules slip before budgets do. Heavier customs inspection stretches delivery on imported machinery, millwork and specialty materials, pushing crews and subtrades out of sequence.
Three things to do this week
- Add a tariff escalation clause to every open quote. One sentence tying material pricing to duty rates at time of purchase. It costs nothing to add today and it is the only thing that protects a signed contract.
- Confirm origin in writing on your top ten materials. Most contractors discover they genuinely do not know, and a Canadian distributor is not the same thing as a Canadian-made product.
- Shorten quote validity to seven or fourteen days. Thirty days made sense in a stable market. Clients accept the change when you explain why.
What it looks like in practice
Worked example · a fourteen-person renovation firm with its own millwork shop, in Winnipeg
Two site crews and four people in the shop. They run eight to twelve fixed-price residential jobs a year at $180,000 to $600,000 each, and the shop ships cabinet components to a builder in Minnesota that is worth about 15% of turnover. Quotes have always been good for thirty days.
September looked fine, and that was the trap. Goods already in transit on 8 September were not caught, so their first post-tariff delivery arrived at the old price and the owner concluded the news had been overblown. The plaster board at 50% and the sawn softwood at 25% land on the October invoices, against three jobs already priced and signed.
The crew’s clothing is a tariffed import. Clothing, textiles and protective garments are at 50%. Hi-vis, gloves, coveralls and fall-arrest harnesses are bought on a trade account nobody reviews, and the increase sits in overhead where no bid ever sees it.
The Minnesota contract may not be dead after all. The US measure is 554 specific tariff subheadings, and advisers are blunt about it: screen by code, not category. The plywood panel stock they ship as components is plainly captured at 50%. The assembled units are a different code, and we could not find it on the list — which is worth a broker’s ruling before they price the next order, not a decision made on our reading alone.
Then the other half. You cannot put a site crew on a plane, so the export question here is only about the shop: under CETA a Canadian firm can bid on EU public procurement worth about $3.3 trillion a year, and the CPTPP took Japanese duties on worked wood products to zero on day one. Nearer term, the honest move is domestic — the shop currently turns down commercial millwork it could win, because quoting it takes three days it does not have.
What we would build:
- A take-off template that carries country of origin and HS code on every purchased line, screened against the 554 subheadings, so a bid states what is captured before it leaves the office.
- Live supplier pricing pulled into the estimating sheet with duty applied per line, so nothing goes out priced on last quarter’s numbers.
- A quote generator that writes the escalation clause from the actual material list and stamps a seven-day validity on every page.
- A landed-cost sheet for shop shipments south that separates the captured component lines from everything else, so the Minnesota order can be quoted honestly the same day.
None of that changes the tariff. It moves the number from the year-end reckoning to the moment the bid is written, which is the only place it can still be acted on.
What you receive
Six things, built for your firm, starting within 48 hours of checkout.
The core is a written review: deep research across your materials, suppliers and sector, with a human checking every finding against the actual schedules and discarding what is wrong. You also get a private AI knowledge base trained on your website, supplier lists, take-offs and contracts — yours to keep, and able to answer “which materials on the Harbourview job are captured?” with a source you can check. Running through both is a scoped plan of what we would build, with real hour estimates.
Alongside those: a slide deck for the conversation with a client or lender, a one-page infographic, and video and audio overviews.
See a complete worked example → — every artifact, unredacted.
What we would build for your firm
- Dynamic estimating that pulls live supplier pricing into every bid, so nothing leaves the office priced on last quarter’s numbers.
- A material cost dashboard that alerts you when a line item crosses the threshold making an active contract unprofitable.
- An escalation clause generator producing client-ready pass-through language tied to your actual material list.
- A supplier and lead-time tracker ranking domestic and non-US alternatives by cost, availability and delivery window.
And beyond tariffs: the scheduling, quoting or client-portal system you have been putting off. See our case studies.
And the other half — who else would buy this?
You cannot put a framing crew on a plane, so for a contractor the export question is not about the whole business — it is about the parts of it that travel, which usually means what leaves your shop rather than what happens on site: prefabricated and modular units, trusses, millwork, engineered wood, and the design and project systems you have already paid to build. Under CETA a Canadian firm can bid on EU public procurement worth about $3.3 trillion a year, and the CPTPP took Japanese duties on worked wood products to zero on day one, so the shop half of the business has a shorter path out than most owners assume.
CETA opens about $3.3 trillion a year of EU public procurement to Canadian bidders.Japan
Worked wood and aluminum products went duty-free immediately; lumber and plywood phase out over 15 years.Australia & NZ
Contracts you can read without a translator. Freight and biosecurity rules on wood are the hurdles.Getting found
An architect overseas has to be able to find your shop before anyone can spec it.
Two things worth knowing
There is money for this
Ottawa has $7.5 billion behind tariff-hit businesses, including non-repayable contributions up to $3 million. We do not run those programs and take nothing from them. The full list →
Cutting costs buys a year
Work that does not depend on American materials or American-linked clients is the answer that lasts. Selling beyond the US →
Questions we get asked
Are steel and aluminum hit by the new 50% US duty?
No. Products already covered by Section 232 measures are excluded from Section 338 and continue under their existing regime rather than stacking. But note the other direction: Canada’s counter-tariffs do cover US steel and aluminum and their derivative products, so if you buy American fixings or extrusions, that is your exposure.
Can I pass tariff costs to a client mid-contract?
Only if your contract says you can, and most standard Canadian construction contracts do not include tariff-specific escalation language. Adding it to open quotes now is far easier than renegotiating a signed one. That is a question for your lawyer, not your software studio.
My supplier is Canadian. Am I safe?
Not necessarily. A Canadian distributor may be importing US-made goods that carry counter-tariffs. Origin determines duty, not the address on the invoice.
Do I have to hire you for software afterwards?
No. The plan is written to be useful whether or not you ever work with us.
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Related
- Manufacturing and assembly
- Real estate and property management
- Logistics and freight
- The full rules, in plain English
- Where else in the world would buy this?
The worked example above is an illustration, not a client, but every tariff fact in it is real. Operational and strategic guidance from a software studio, not legal, customs, or tax advice. Confirm classification and duty liability with a licensed customs broker. Last reviewed 11 September 2026.