Gondek forms advisory group in 'Team Calgary' approach to potential tariffs
Reps from Calgary Economic Development, Chamber of Commerce to share insights
Facing the threat of a trade war with the United States, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek is laying out a plan to protect the city's economy and support local businesses that could be impacted by American tariffs.
"We don't have a crystal ball to predict whether more tariffs will come, what industries will be impacted, and how significant those impacts will be," Gondek told reporters at a news conference on Thursday.
She adds she's formed a tariff advisory group that will meet for the first time on Friday to hash out the details of its strategies. The mayor calls it a "Team Calgary" approach.
"We need to give businesses the comfort of knowing that we are looking at relief measures," she said.
"Now is the time to cut any unnecessary red tape and remove financial barriers wherever we can."
The mayor says that after consulting with partners like the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and Calgary Economic Development, she learned the city needs to find ways to become "tariff proof."
WATCH | Calgary is the 2nd most vulnerable city in the country to U.S. tariffs:
She says Calgary will figure out what it can do to protect local businesses, taxpayers and major projects such as the Green Line LRT and the in-development Scotia Place arena.
"Whether tariffs are immediately implemented or the threats continue to be prolonged … we must ensure that we can rely more on Canadian-made goods by boosting local production by improving trade agreements across provinces and diversifying trades with other countries," Gondek said.
She says she's directed city administration to examine procurement bylaws and processes to remove economic barriers, to focus on buying Canadian or non-American goods where possible and to work with nearby municipalities to support local supply chains.
Calgary Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Deborah Yedlin and Calgary Economic Development president and CEO Brad Parry will be at Tuesday's city council meeting. They'll share their insights and answer questions from councillors about the city's response to potential tariffs.
Gondek says she'll be advocating for the removal of interprovincial trade barriers through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' big city mayors caucus.
Ruhee Ismail-Teja, vice-president of policy and external affairs at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, says the chamber is pleased to see the city taking pre-emptive action on shoring up economic protections against possible tariffs.
She says Calgary changing its procurement policies is not going to be enough to shift the face of the Canadian economy, but it's an important step in the right direction.
"If all cities do take steps like this, if individuals do shop local, if businesses understand and have the resources to be able to support each other, that actually will help improve our Canadian economy and build our resiliency to external shocks," Ismail-Teja said.
She says because Calgary is very vulnerable to U.S. tariffs, the stakes are high, in particular for small businesses that may find it difficult to pivot to a local procurement strategy. She notes 42 per cent of Calgary's exports come from small businesses, and more than half of those export only to the United States.
"Being able to access Canadian markets and receive support from considerable government procurement budgets, but also from other local businesses, will really help mitigate the impact of potential tariffs," Ismail-Teja said.
She says Calgary needs to act with a degree of urgency because tariffs are threatened for as early as the beginning of March, but additional trade threats of various sorts will likely continue to loom over Canada.
Ismail-Teja echoed Gondek's call for the removal of interprovincial trade barriers because they make products up to 14 per cent more expensive for consumers as well as create additional challenges to business expansion.
"We also have seen that businesses have really had their resilience tested. Calgary, in particular, we had the oil crash, we've had the the pandemic, we've had the financial crisis, we've had ongoing recessions," she said.
"Being able to to support businesses that have been impacted by the volatility of our economy is really critical."
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With files from Scott Dippel, Bryan Labby and Mike Symington