Portage working with other municipalities to adapt to potential tariff challenges

Several Manitoba municipalities are already working together to find ways to buy more products domestically and less from the United States, as the U.S. president continues his threats to slap tariffs on Canadian goods.

During a Monday council meeting, Portage la Prairie city councillor Joe Masi asked city manager Nathan Peto if the city’s administration has been looking into how possible tariffs could affect the city’s bottom line, their current purchasing and procurement policies and what the city could do to mitigate damage should tariffs go through.

Since returning to the White House in January, U.S. president Donald Trump has threatened to put 25% tariffs on Canadian goods going into the U.S. and this week he announced 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum coming into the U.S from all foreign countries, including Canada.

“I know this is a tough issue, because things seen to change day-by-day and hour-by-hour, and because we don’t have a lot of answers yet,” Masi said. “But have you looked at how tariffs could affect our purchasing procurement, particularly as it relates to buying Canadian, and potentially buying more Canadian products?”

Peto assured council on Monday that the city’s administration has not been “sitting on its hands” when it comes to preparing for possible tariffs and how they could affect the city’s operations and budgets.

“Right now there is ever-constantly shifting sand in the procurement world, and with international trade,” Peto said. “So we have been thinking proactively about, how do we best protect the organization, because currently we do purchase a lot of different materials, and a lot of them do come from outside of Canada.”

Peto told council that municipalities in Manitoba often purchase items in groups and said they are already working with other communities to see what they can do to purchase more domestic products.

“We are working closely with other municipalities and looking at other options to insure that we can buy domestically for a lot of our essential products,” he said “There are a lot of buy-in groups where groups and municipalities buy products together, and there are ways to obtain domestic supply that will work for us.

“We are investigating how to ensure that we can find secure domestic product lines with the products we use in our day-to- day use, whether that’s for utilities or our operations department or other departments.”

Peto added the community is also looking to purchase items on their wish list as quickly as possible and before tariffs might go into effect.

“In terms of protecting the organization, we know we need to be proactive financially, and we are already working to advance a lot of our capital purchasing schedule, so if we know we need a product this year, we are working to get it quickly, and before any potential tariffs come through,” Peto said.

Administration also warned council on Monday that although their current procurement policy is already in place, it would likely come back to council for changes and amendments if tariffs come into effect.

“It could be coming back to council to make adjustments in order to make sure some of the actions I mentioned today can happen a little smoother,” Peto said.

Peto said administration has also been working with the local business community and the Portage la Prairie & District Chamber of Commerce to learn how the city and other organizations in the area can purchase more Canadian and locally made products.

This story was originally published in The Winnipeg Sun. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.