Article Synopsis
Five Nanaimo-area organizations received more than $8.8 million through Pacific Economic Development Canada's Regional Tariff Response Initiative, part of a $1.95 billion federal program for tariff-affected manufacturers. Nanaimo Forest Products received $5.5 million for its Harmac Pacific pulp mill. Niik Steel received $1 million to build a metal decking and flooring facility. Vancouver Island Economic Alliance received $300,000 to connect local producers with new markets. Twenty four B.C. companies received funding overall.
Five Nanaimo-area businesses and organizations are sharing more than $8.8 million in new federal funding aimed at helping B.C. companies manage trade disruptions and reach new markets. The money comes through Pacific Economic Development Canada’s Regional Tariff Response Initiative (RTRI), part of a $1.95 billion federal program supporting Canadian manufacturers and exporters facing tariff pressure. Twenty four B.C. companies and organizations received funding through the announcement. Three of them operate in Nanaimo.
The investments land in a city whose economy has spent the past several years diversifying well beyond its industrial roots, even as that industrial base keeps expanding.
Nanaimo Forest Products: $5.5 million
With the community still managing with the effects of the Crofton Mill closure, Nanaimo Forest Products, which operates the Harmac Pacific pulp mill in south Nanaimo, received the single largest investment among the 24 recipients. The funding will help the mill install new equipment to increase production capacity, improving efficiency and reducing costs. PacifiCan says the project will help maintain forestry jobs and strengthen the competitiveness of B.C. pulp products in international markets.
Niik Steel: $1 million
Niik Steel, based in the Duke Point Industrial Park, is drawing its second government commitment of the year. Earlier in 2026, the structural steel fabricator secured a $900,000 provincial grant through the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund toward a $5 million capital expansion expected to create 26 jobs. This new $1 million federal investment funds a separate project: a facility to produce metal decking, flooring and other steel building components for markets across Western Canada.
Vancouver Island Economic Alliance: $300,000
VIEA, the Nanaimo-based non-profit that connects Vancouver Island businesses with partners and new opportunities, will use its funding to support programs that link local producers with buyers and help businesses enter new domestic and international markets.
Two Levels of Government, Same Companies
For Nanaimo, the tariff response funding lands on top of a provincial funding round earlier this year that reached several of the same industrial sectors, including Niik Steel’s own BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund award alongside VMAC Global Technology, GRT, and Rootside Provisions. Taken together, the region’s manufacturers have now drawn commitments from both levels of government within the same calendar year
Building More Capacity
Harmac Pacific is retooling equipment it already runs. Niik Steel is building a product line it does not yet have. VIEA is trying to put more local companies in front of buyers they have not met. Three different problems, one program, three different responses.
Nanaimo’s industrial base is not standing still while the rest of the economy grows around it. A hundred-year-old pulp mill and a steel fabricator that is not yet a decade old both applied to the same federal program in the same year, and both got money.
