London announces first steps to reshape local economy as U.S. tariffs loom

City Hall, alongside two London-based economic development groups, announced the first steps toward shoring up the local economy in the face of the threat of crushing tariff threats from the United States.

Those steps include three initiatives to meet the challenge of helping local businesses re-orient themselves in a world where domestic trade could become increasingly important for their wellbeing. 

"I think we all expect interprovincial trade barriers to be taken down. That means we need to shift our programs to try to encourage our small businesses and new entrepreneurs to take advantage of those new opportunities, and East West trade across the country," Josh Morgan said Wednesday.

The moves, jointly announced by the City of London, the London Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) and the London Small Business Centre, come weeks after Morgan convened a meeting of local business and institutional leaders to discuss tariff threats from the United States.

Those threats began last November and have since ramped up, with U.S. President Donald Trump poised until today to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods on March 4. Today, Trump's administration announced those tariffs could be coming later, based on negotiations.

Helping food and beverage manufacturers

Wednesday's announcement included a special focus on manufacturers of food and beverage.

"Food processing is an area that we have identified as a key significant sector," said Steve Pellarin, the Small Business Centre's executive director. 

Pellarin said on top of the sector being known to be resilient in economic downturn scenarios, it's practical given southwestern Ontario's robust agricultural sector.

"All the raw materials are here," he said.

The Foodpreneur Advantage Scale Up program that helps businesses get established and grow is being enhanced. It will now better help small manufacturers get their products on Canadian grocery store shelves, without the current interprovincial barriers. 

It's an adjustment that's being paired with greater cooperation between the Small Business Centre and LEDC to not only help businesses as they start up, but continue to help them as they grow from medium, to sometimes large businesses.

"What the threat of tariffs has done is force us to take a good hard look at where opportunities for collaboration are. That can be anything from the way that one program flows into another, to sharing resources between programs," said Pellarin. "It's all part of the equation."

On top of shoring up the Foodpreneur program, the NewStart program, which connects newcomers with the resources they need to start a business, will be folded into this collaboration with LEDC.

Pellarin said the programs, together, are expected to support and create more than 45 companies, and create close to 200 new jobs.

Attracting newcomers and ensuring their success

Another prong of the approach, headed by the LEDC, is a push to attract international businesses to London. 

A partnership with Global Start-Ups in Toronto will try to bring in international entrepreneurs with business plans that are pre-vetted, who also have financial resources and approved immigration.

According to Kapil Lakhotia, LEDC's president, despite uncertainty and tariff threats causing concerns for foreign investors, attracting overseas business remains important.

"That's why we are working in different parts of the world with established businesses. It's important to not panic, but build on our region's strength and create new strategies to keep diversifying our economy," Lakhotia said.

LEDC says the partnership with Global Start-Ups has already resulted in a positive outlook. It's believed nearly a dozen businesses are looking at London, which could create more than 50 jobs.

Moving forward, Lakhotia and Morgan said, work to diversify London's economy and build it up will continue.

"By no means are these initiatives silver bullets on their own," Lakhotia said. "But, putting them all together gives us a much better toolkit to be able to keep growing the economy in a sustainable form."