Canada's last hockey stick factory survives in face of tariff threats and globalization

BRANTFORD, Ontario (AP) — Wearing protective gloves and earplugs, a worker feeds lengths of wood into a machine that makes an earsplitting whine as it automatically cuts a groove into the end of each piece.

Nearby, stacks of wooden wedges wait to be slotted into those grooves to form the beginnings of a hockey stick. Further down the Roustan Hockey production line, other workers are busy shaping, trimming, sanding, painting and screen printing as they turn lumber into a Canadian national symbol.

It's a typical day on the job for the 15 workers at Canada's last major hockey stick factory, 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of Toronto.

The operation has origins that date back to the 1800s and has survived decades of trade globalization to hang on as the last North American commercial manufacturer of traditional wooden hockey sticks. Now it's facing fresh headwinds from the trade war launched by U.S. President Donald Trump, who has ripped up free trade deals in North America and imposed tariffs on Canadian exports.

The uncertainty is making life a headache for Roustan.

“You never know” what Trump will do, said Bo Crawford, the factory's general manager. “You just have to roll with it and the president of the U.S. can change his mind day to day, week to week, hour to hour. So yeah, we have to deal with it the best we can," he said.

Roustan has spent months dealing with U.S. customer worries and navigating the trade challenges.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian imports, though many goods have ultimately remained exempted because they're already covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement negotiated during his first term.

Then, in late August, the Trump administration eliminated a widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 that resulted in new uncertainty over cross-border trade, said owner and CEO Graeme Roustan.

“Even if somebody buys one or two or five or 10 sticks and it’s under $100, they’re going to be affected by the tariffs, so the jury is still out on how that’s going to impact business,” Roustan said.

Roustan Hockey's factory churns out about 400,000 wooden hockey sticks a year under the Christian, Northland and Sherwood brands, with about 100,000 exported to the United States. It also makes plastic-bladed road hockey sticks and foam-core goalie sticks.

Crawford said shipments to the U.S. have been held up for manual inspections at the border, where they've been hit with surprise tariffs, which the company's customs broker has managed to get waived.

It's not just sticks. Shipments of goalie pads, which Roustan manufactures at a separate factory in Toronto, were recently flagged for an unexpected 200% tariff, which company managers said they're trying to resolve with new forms from their shipping company.

The disruption underscores the broader trade turmoil that's left the Canadian economy reeling.

Canada's economy shrank 1.6% in the second quarter, in the first contraction since 2023 and the biggest decline since the COVID-19 pandemic. Exports slumped 7.5%, as uncertainty over tariffs and trade pummeled exports to the country's biggest trading partner, the United States.

Those figures overshadow the longer-term decline of Canadian manufacturing. Some 37,800 manufacturing jobs were lost in the year to August, according to official data.

Real investment in industrial machinery and equipment fell in the second quarter to the lowest level since records began in 1981, experts at the National Bank of Canada pointed out in a recent research note.

“How did we get here? Years of excessive regulation, and a chronic lack of ambition by successive governments in promoting domestic transformation of our natural resources—recently made worse by Washington’s protectionist agenda,” wrote economists Stéfane Marion and Matthieu Arseneau. "That failure has eroded Canada’s manufacturing base and left us at risk of becoming irrelevant in global supply chains.”

The Roustan operation started life in 1847 as an agricultural workshop, 20 years before Canada became a country and 70 years before the National Hockey League was created.

It's all that survives of the golden era of North American wooden hockey stick manufacturing in the 1970s and ’80s when there were numerous workshops in Ontario and Quebec, as well as U.S. production centered in Minnesota.

Roustan, a businessman who also owns The Hockey News and once attempted to buy the Montreal Canadiens, acquired the operation in 2019 — by then named Heritage Wood Specialties — and moved it from aging facilities in the town of Hespeler, 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of Brantford, hometown of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.

Nowadays, global production amounts to about 5 million hockey sticks a year, but wood makes up only about a tenth. No NHL player has regularly used a wooden stick in well over a decade, underlining the sport's embrace of newer technology.

Composite sticks, made of carbon fiber and other lightweight advanced materials, are now far more popular and preferred by both amateurs and professionals. But composite sticks are pricier because of the advanced manufacturing processes involved.

Meanwhile, over the years, Canadian and U.S. production consolidated or moved to Asia and Mexico amid a wider global shift by Western consumer brands in search of cheaper manufacturing overseas.

“It’s very hard to compete against some of the Asian markets and some of our competitors that are in other countries," said Crawford. “But our quality kind of stands for itself.”

Roustan acknowledges that the wooden hockey stick market is not a growth industry and, at best, production will hold steady.

“Right now, we have, you know, 5-10% of the market. But it’s diminishing every year. And the kids that are growing up today, they are all about composite. So yes, it’s a shrinking market for sure.”

At Roustan's 130,000 square foot factory, the manufacturing process is low-tech and artisanal.

At one workstation, a worker uses liquid epoxy to glue fiberglass reinforcing sheets to wooden blades, in batches of six. Nearby, another worker uses a band saw to trim dried excess fiberglass off each blade. In the paint room, sticks are dipped in white paint and then hung on a line of moving hooks to dry.

The factory's story is not just about evolving trade patterns and modern industrial practices, but also about the place that the national winter sport has in the Canadian soul, Roustan said.

“It’s important to any country to have a manufacturing base of products that you consume on a regular basis,” said Roustan. “Having a factory that makes hockey sticks in Canada really serves two purposes. One, it contributes to the manufacturing base. But two, (it) has the legacy and the tug of the heartstrings of the game that we all love in Canada.”

Wooden hockey sticks are stacked as they move along the assembly line at the Roustan Hockey factory, which is the last major manufacturer of hockey sticks in Canada on Aug. 27, 2025 in Brantford, Ontario. (AP Photo/Kelvin Chan)

A worker makes wooden hockey sticks at the Roustan Hockey factory, which is the last major manufacturer of hockey sticks in Canada on Aug. 27, 2025 in Brantford, Ontario. (AP Photo/Kelvin Chan)

A worker makes wooden hockey sticks at the Roustan Hockey factory, which is the last major manufacturer of hockey sticks in Canada on Aug. 27, 2025 in Brantford, Ontario. (AP Photo/Kelvin Chan)

Wooden hockey sticks are stacked as they move along the assembly line at the Roustan Hockey factory, which is the last major manufacturer of hockey sticks in Canada on Aug. 27, 2025 in Brantford, Ontario. (AP Photo/Kelvin Chan)

Iranian fired drones towards Saudi Arabia and Kuwait early Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump sent contradictory signals about how long the war could last, fueling uncertainty that’s causing markets to swing.

The Saudi Defense Ministry said it has destroyed drones over the kingdom’s oil-rich eastern region, while in Kuwait, the National Guard said it shot some down in the county’s northern and southern areas.

Iran’s latest attacks on neighboring Gulf States come as Trump late Monday told Republican lawmakers that the war was likely to be a “short excursion,” but hours later threatened in a post on social media that the U.S. would dramatically increase attacks if Iran tried to close the Strait of Hormuz.

In an apparent response to Trump’s remarks published in Iranian state media, a spokesperson for the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Ali Mohammad Naini, said “Iran will determine when the war ends.”

Here is the latest:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday that Israel will continue striking Iran.

“Our aim is to bring the Iranian people to cast off the yoke of tyranny, ultimately it depends on them,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with Israel’s hospital and health system leaders.

“But there is no doubt that with the actions taken so far, we are breaking their bones,” he said.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told government agencies and state companies to begin having staff not in public facing roles to work from home.

The government said Tuesday that Thailand was also suspending overseas training and study trips.

The announcement comes as countries in Southeast Asia move to counter disruptions to oil and gas supplies from the war in the Middle East.

The Vietnamese government ordered similar measures, but also urged people to limit private use of their vehicles.

Fuel prices have climbed and long lines have formed outside filling stations as drivers and motorcycle riders rush to ensure they can fill their tanks.

Iran’s parliament speaker on Tuesday dismissed any suggestion Tehran sought a ceasefire in the war.

“We are definitely not looking for a ceasefire; we believe that the aggressor should be punched in the mouth so that he learns a lesson so that he will never think of attacking our beloved Iran again,” Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf wrote on X.

“The Zionist regime sees its shameful existence in the continuation of the cycle of ‘war-negotiation-ceasefire and then war again’ to consolidate its dominance. We will break this cycle,” he wrote.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it killed three Palestinians in Gaza late Monday.

The Palestinians approached Israeli troops near the temporary line that Israel withdrew to at the start of the October 2025 ceasefire. The Yellow Line marks the Israel-controlled area in eastern Gaza.

Since the start of the ceasefire, at least 80 Palestinians have been killed near the Yellow Line after the Israeli military accused them of approaching and endangering soldiers.

Israel’s military said it detected an Iranian missile launch targeting the country Tuesday morning.

Sirens were heard in Jerusalem and explosions could be heard in Tel Aviv as Israel’s military worked to intercept the fire.

India’s oil ministry has set up a committee to review supplies of commercial cooking gas as the hospitality sector experiences a shortage of liquefied petroleum gas cylinders.

India relies heavily on oil and gas shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has attacked several ships in the strait and threatened any ships that try to pass through, effectively closing it.

Industry groups in India say restaurants in some major cities including Mumbai and Bengaluru are struggling to secure cooking gas cylinders. They warn some eateries could shut within days if supplies are not restored.

Indian authorities have prioritized LPG supplies for household use, tightening availability for commercial users such as hotels and restaurants.

Azerbaijan has sent humanitarian aid to Iran, Azerbaijani officials said Monday.

The aid includes 10 tons of flour, six tons of rice, more than two tons of sugar, over four tons of water, about 600 kilograms of tea and about two tons of medicines and medical supplies, according to officials.

The move comes after tensions spiked between Baku and Tehran last week when Azerbaijan accused Iran of firing drones at its Nakhchivan exclave, an allegation Tehran denies.

Azerbaijan also has increased military and economic ties with Israel.

Iran’s judiciary is warning its local media about what and how it reports as the war with Israel and the United States goes on.

That was a comment made by judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir as reported by the state-run IRNA news agency.

It said Jahangir said local outlets “that did not comply with security issues and had taken videos and photos of certain places solely for the purpose of informing were given the necessary warnings.”

“If this happens again, the necessary legal measures will be taken,” he said, without elaborating.

Iran has shut off the internet during the war and may be restricting reporting to hide what has been struck so far.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday the Patriot missile defense system is being deployed in Malatya province, which hosts a NATO radar base.

The move follows NATO defenses intercepting a second ballistic missile fired from Iran that entered Turkish airspace Monday.

The Israeli military on Tuesday reiterated the call for all residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes as it planned to “operate forcefully” in the southern area against Hezbollah.

Israel issued similar warnings during its war with Hezbollah in 2003-2024, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

The Iraqi military has condemned an attack early Tuesday on a camp for an umbrella of Iranian-backed groups in northern Iraq.

The airstrike on 40th Brigade of the Popular Mobilization Forces in the city of Kirkuk killed five and wounded four, according to two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

The military described the strikes as “a blatant targeting of Iraq.”

Iraq for years has had to walk a tightrope between the U.S. and Iranian-allied Shiite groups, including some that are part of the government.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it had completed a series of strikes targeting Hezbollah’s financial arm, al-Qard Al-Hasan.

Israel says Hezbollah uses al-Qard al-Hasan to finance its military activities.

Israel targeted several of the group’s branches in southern and eastern Lebanon last week.

Saudi Arabia’s oil giant Aramco reported 2025 profits of $104 billion, down from the year before as the Iran war has seen its fields and facilities targeted.

Aramco released its annual results Tuesday. It planned to brief investors later in the day as the war that began Feb. 28 has seen Iranian drones and missiles target its facilities.

Aramco, formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., reported profits of $110 billion in 2024.

Aramco said its 2025 revenues were $445 billion, down from $480 billion in 2024.

The United Arab Emirates will lower the volume of missile alerts sent to mobile phones in the overnight hours.

The UAE’s National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority made the announcement late Monday night, saying that the loud blaring alarm would sound on phones from 9 a.m. until 10:30 p.m.

A standard text message chime would sound from 10:30 p.m. until 9 a.m., it said.

The blaring klaxon had sounded in the middle of the night since the war began Feb. 28. The change in the alerts signals how Gulf Arab states are trying to adjust to the idea of the war grinding onward as there’s no immediate sign of an end to the conflict.

Egypt hiked fuel prices by up to 17% on Tuesday as the war in the Middle East sent prices of oil soaring.

According to the Petroleum Ministry the cost of a liter of diesel, which is heavily relied on for public transport, increased by more than 17%. The price of the 92-octane gasoline rose by 15% and 95-octane gasoline increased by 14%.

The war has hit Egypt hard. The most populous Arab country, Egypt depends heavily on imported fuel. The Egyptian pound fell to a record low, trading at over 52 to the US dollar on Monday.

To mitigate impact of the war, the government announced a series of measures, including reducing official overseas trips and tightening fuel consumption across sectors.

The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said on Tuesday that the end of the war will be determined by Iran.

Spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini said in a statement published in various Iranian state media and apparently in response to Trump’s remarks Monday that “Iran will determine when the war ends.”

The U.S. president pledged aggressive action against Iran if it continues to block the shipment of oil in the Strait of Hormuz.

“If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,” Trump posted on social media. “Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen!”

The president said his threat was a “gift” to China, among other nations, because it relies on oil from the Middle East.

Flames rise from an oil storage facility south of the capital Tehran as strikes hit the city during the U.S.–Israel military campaign, Iran, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iraqis hold a portrait of the new successor to Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei at a bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone where the U.S. embassy is located in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

A coffin is carried during the funeral of mostly children killed in a strike Feb. 28 at a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News Agency via AP)

This image taken from video provided by Iran state TV shows Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran's slain supreme leader, who has been named as the Islamic Republic's next ruler, authorities announced Monday, March 9, 2026. (Iran state TV via AP)