Quinte West City Council approved a motion at its meeting on Wednesday calling for city staff to develop a “Buy Local, Buy Canadian” campaign in response to the proposed tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.
It calls for the campaign to support the Quinte West Chamber of Commerce, Trenton DBIA, and others in encouraging residents and businesses to join the municipality in purchasing locally made Canadian goods and services in order to protect local jobs in the city, as well as throughout the province of Ontario.
The motion was introduced by Councillor Shelley Stedall.
“We’re just trying to get the point across and that is remind citizens, remind ourselves, businesses, do whatever you can to support local to keep our economy rolling,” Stedall told council.
“Our economy will continue to roll. I have the utmost faith that it will. I don’t believe that these tariffs are going to be the detriment of Canada. However, I think it’s important for us to make sure that we do have a voice, and that’s the reason for the notice of motion.”
Part of Stedall’s motion calls for a review of the municipality’s purchasing by-law to consider any temporary measures that could enable the city to prioritize Canadian products and services where feasible, while maintaining compliance with applicable trade agreements and procurement regulations.
It also calls on the federal and provincial governments to remove any impediments to municipalities preferring Canadian companies and services for capital projects and other supplies.
Speaking to council, Director of Finance for the City of Quinte West Caleb DenOuden said staff looked into the city’s procurement to determine how much spend was being used on Canadian products and services.
“We looked at not only our own results, but even the City of Toronto report about 10 years ago on how much of their spend is local, and they found that 98% of their spend is already naturally in Canada. We found that over 99% of Quinte West spend is within Canada,” DenOuden said.
“So a lot of our spend is local already. So just a good news story.”
Councillor Zack Card expressed his support of the motion while touting the city’s ability to spend local.
“I think it’s important for even just as a communications exercise, for the public to be more aware that Quinte West as a corporation, as an institution, is spending so much of the procurement purchasing dollars buying Canadian and that we are walking the walk and talking the talk.”
The final part of the motion calls on the provincial and federal governments to take action to remove trade barriers between provinces as a response to US tariffs and support Canadian businesses.
That resolution would be brought to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Doug Ford, the Ontario Minister of Finance, the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and Bay of Quinte MP Ryan Williams and MPP Tyler Allsopp.
It would also be brought to all 444 municipalities in Ontario, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario for their endorsement and advocacy.
The motion was approved by council.
Quinte West Acting CAO and Director of Public Works and Environmental Services Chris Angelo noted that council may see a report in the future requiring additional funds to develop the campaign due to the staffing resources available at the city.
