Mississauga takes local steps to counter Trump’s tariffs but intertwined supply chains make retaliation difficult

During Wednesday’s general committee meeting of council, Mississauga’s local elected officials approved amendments to the City’s procurement bylaw in an effort to promote Canadian businesses and bar any contracts from going to American suppliers or companies.

According to a staff report, the City of Mississauga in total “procured approximately $927M in Goods and/or Services in 2023 and approximately $730M in Goods and/or Services in 2024”, the vast majority from Canadian companies. 

The City currently has 171 open purchase orders (POs) “with US suppliers”, but only 52 of these are directly engaged as many of the companies have a Canadian presence. Many of the American companies that have contracts with the City operate in the Information Technology space. The existing American contracts have a value of approximately $9.2 million (US). These contracts and others could now go to Canadian competitors moving forward, despite rules that prevent “geographic discrimination”. 

“Under normal circumstances, this would prevent the City from showing preferential treatment to local or Canadian suppliers,” the staff report explained. “However, there is an exemption where the discriminatory business practice is in accordance with federal or provincial policy. Based on media reports, in the event of US tariffs, it appears the Canadian and Ontario governments will engage in a policy to promote Canadian business, thereby allowing the City to engage in a corresponding policy.” 

The move to cut ties with American suppliers in response to President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods, follows many other municipalities across the country that are also redrafting their procurement policies to ensure local tax dollars do not flow south of the border.

One councillor in particular had sharp words for Trump Wednesday.

“What an awful situation to be at the mercy of a single man with a single idea in his head,” Joe Horneck said, telling staff “don’t be afraid to be even more bold,” in response to the report brought before council members Wednesday. 

Mississauga Councillor Joe Horneck wants investments lined up for projects that would help local businesses offset losses due to American tariffs. 

(Alexis Wright/The Pointer)

To help local businesses that could be impacted by the tariffs he suggested flowing investments to “shovel ready projects” in the longer term to stimulate the local economy and ensure the City is prepared.

“We hope our American cousins will wake up and tell the one man to do the same: ‘wake up and smarten up’.”

As the representative for the area that includes the Pearson Economic Zone, Ward 5 Councillor Natalie Hart said she is “deeply, deeply concerned,” about the impact tariffs will have on businesses across Malton where the airport is located. 

As part of its response, the City will be introducing the Mayor’s Partners in Trade Business roundtable this month to collaborate with the Mississauga Board of Trade and other stakeholders. Hart said she wants to see the City undertake strong outreach with manufacturing and transportation-warehouse companies “to ensure those voices are being heard and acknowledged.”

“They’re not joiners. The folks that are running businesses that are most at risk through this process from within our city are not the people we see at MBOT breakfasts,” she told staff. “They’re not the people that we see at large industry galas, they’re people that are running businesses that are employing 100 to 200 people and they’re at work when people are having lunch and breakfast.”

She cautioned that the tariff impacts will compound already difficult conditions across the city.

“If we start to see this impact to those sectors that you’re forecasting, that is a huge impact to our city across the board. We think we had an affordability crisis yesterday, today’s a very different story.” 

Wednesday’s staff report was approved resoundingly by council.

Assessing Mississauga’s vulnerability to Trump’s cross-border trade levies, Christina Kakaflikas, the City’s director of economic development, told council the manufacturing industry will be the hardest hit by the U.S. tariffs with more than 52,300 jobs directly supporting trade to the U.S., followed by wholesale trade and transportation. Overall, she projected more than roughly 89,000 jobs in Mississauga (18 percent of total employment) directly support exports to the U.S., higher than Ontario overall at 13 percent.

“International trade policy and geopolitics are not in our control at the municipal level,” Kakaflikas acknowledged. “The Mississauga Partners in Trade Action Plan is a city wide response that focuses on taking action on the things we can control and influence, both in the short term as well as over the long term to safeguard our city and our economy and protect jobs.”

The staff report detailed how intertwined current supply chains are, making it difficult to single out American companies that could be targeted by the City.

“It would be difficult, or impossible, to enforce compliance with a ‘Buy Canada’ procurement policy in the downstream supply chain, particularly for complex projects such as construction where a myriad of products and suppliers are used. Finished goods costs will still be a concern even when applying a ‘Buy Canada’ approach,” staff explained. “While Canada may have the raw material, it is often exported to the US to complete the finished good and then re-imported to Canada for sale (for example, chassis for fire trucks). The City can position itself to support ‘Buy Canada’, but it does not mean that the supply chain does not include US suppliers. We would have no reasonable way to control the downstream supply chain to ensure all components are made in Canada.”

Kakaflikas warned of the looming impacts across the country and in Mississauga specifically. She said analysis by various industry sectors and other experts suggests the potential loss of 600,000 jobs across Canada including Mississauga, which could be even harder hit because of its large manufacturing base. She encouraged elected officials to immediately begin outreach with local business owners who will need support and connections to a range of government programs at all three levels that can provide help.

Business owners can visit the City’s website for more detailed information about possible supports.

Email: [email protected] 

Twitter: @mcpaigepeacock 

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