Maple Ridge adopts response plan to U.S. tariff threats

With a trade war between Canada and the U.S. pending, Maple Ridge city council unanimously passed an action plan Tuesday evening to enhance the procurement of Canadian-made goods and products. 

The city is looking to front-load lower-priced projects while delaying other major expenditures as part of a six-pronged risk management strategy.

Mayor Dan Ruimy said it would help the city navigate the economic uncertainty between the two countries, which has already undergone a rollercoaster in the last few weeks. 

On Feb. 1, United States President Donald Trump first said a 25 per cent tariff would be slapped onto Canadian goods. A couple days later, Canada and the U.S. agreed to a pause the tariffs for 30 days. The U.S. president imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum earlier this week.

“We really don’t know what tomorrow brings,” Ruimy said. “What we want from our organization is to be nimble and flexible.” 

Most of the city’s vendors are Canadian, according to preliminary analysis from staff. 

However, tariff threats from Trump could impact the supply chain and bring increased costs as many of the city’s capital projects do source equipment and goods south of the border. 

If the tariffs are imposed, all consumers — including municipalities — will be impacted, said Andrey Pavlov, a finance professor at Simon Fraser University. 

“Cities, being buyers of certain things they need for their operation . . . whatever they’re buying from U.S. sources is going to become more difficult,” he said. 

But Pavlov, who specializes in real estate finance at SFU, said he doesn’t believe the tariffs will significantly disrupt housing and development. (Last month, Maple Ridge removed a pause of Lougheed corridor development following progress on the Bus Rapid Transit plan (BRT). The new rapid transit initiative was stalling 14 projects and 2,300 units in the corridor.)

Measures such as the speculation and vacancy taxes make it risky and expensive to build housing in B.C., Pavlov believes. Despite the tariffs likely making U.S. materials more expensive, he doesn’t expect much to change.  

“The tariffs are going to be a drop in the bucket at best,” he said. 

The city’s action plan also included advocacy initiatives with the chamber of commerce to encourage local shopping, and partnerships with Metro Vancouver to mitigate the trade impacts. 

Although the city may be limited under certain trade agreements, Coun. Korleen Carreras said Maple Ridge should look to prioritize local businesses in procurement opportunities whenever possible, regardless of the political back-and-forth between higher levels of government.

The city’s tariff response follows similar moves in neighbouring communities. 

Vancouver recently passed a motion to make sure the city’s procurement contracts go to Canadian businesses, whenever possible. 

Burnaby advised its residents to ‘buy local’ following the initial wave of tariff threats, and Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke called on the province to suspend the provincial sales tax on B.C.-made goods and gas tax with the economic threats looming. 

Moving forward, Maple Ridge has advised staff to continue examining the city’s reliance on U.S. goods and look at alternative sources for goods. 

Pavlov is hopeful the tariffs will not come to fruition, saying the U.S. has asked Canada to do “three very reasonable” things: stop fentanyl smuggling, the flow of migrants, andbeef up border security. 

“I’m embarrassed that someone else had to ask us to do those things, we should have done that on our own,” Pavlov said. 

If handled correctly, Pavlov said he believes the tariff threats could become beneficial to Canada. 

The country is closely aligned to the U.S. in terms of culture and economy. And although he doesn’t think that Canada will ever become the 51^st state, he would like to see the two economies integrated similar to the European Union, where there is no border for goods or services between multiple countries.   

“This model has worked for 30 years now,” said Pavlov, who is originally from Bulgaria. 

“Why can’t we have the same thing with the U.S.? Regardless of how Canadians feel, culturally and economically, we’re a lot similar to the U.S. than Bulgaria is to France or Germany.”